This is a sports blog, I usually talk about sports don't try to get into anything to heavy. Politics and things like that get to heated, in sports there is a winner and loser, you are what your records says you are. No grey areas in sports. After the shootings in Connecticut I feel like I have to put my thoughts down, and since I don't wanna have a long winded facebook status or a thousand tweets I figured I'd put them on this platform. I said a few things yesterday on the social media sites, some in jest and some in seriousness, so I need to clear my mind and give my views on certain issues.
First topic I'll get into is guns. I'm not a gun owner, in fact I've only fired a gun about a dozen times in my life. I understand the need for rifles and shotguns when it comes to hunting. I think everyone should be able to own a firearm if they pass the current laws in place. I guess my point is I'm not trying to take your gun away. What pro gun people need to realize is this though, guns kill people. I don't want to hear this lame ass "guns don't kill people, people kill people." That is terrible, guns kill people, you never hear of someone having a mass stabbing or mass strangling, you hear about mass shootings. In the last 3 weeks there have been 3 high profile shooting, the one yesterday, the mall shooting in Oregon, and Javon Belcher of the Kansas City Chiefs killing his girlfriend and then himself. All 3 have that key word in there "shootings," how far would any of them gotten had they gone around and stabbed people with a knife or wielded a machette. So in fact guns do kill people, and if your a gun owner I know your probably not gonna go out and shoot up a public place, so obviously your guns don't kill people, BUT they can.
When it comes to guns I'm not very bright, I don't know names, caliburs, or uses for most. I know you use a rifle or a shotgun to shoot bambi, and I like that you do that b/c I'd rather you shoot her than me hit her with my car. What I question is the need for a regular citizen to own an assault rifle. Why do you need a semi-automatic assault rifle to shoot anything, unless your idea is to kill a lot of things at one time you don't need that. What are you gonna kill a lot of at one time, certainaly not a deer, or any animal for the most part. If you need to fire off that many rounds to kill something maybe you should go practice more b/c your aim sucks. Most of these public shootings occur with the assailant carrying an assault rifle or two. If they didn't have these high powered high volume guns maybe we're only talking 10 children from yesterday not 20, still a tradgedy but I think 10 of those kids would like to be alive right now.
Another thing I hear a lot of is, "if someone had been allowed to carry a weapon in the school they could've stopped this." Really, you want guns in our schools, and what type of gun? Say the teacher has a hand gun in her desk, is she gonna stop the guy with the assault rifle before he shoots her? I don't think so. People who conceal and carry say they do it for protection, protection from what? I've never carried a gun and I'm fine, never been robbed or anything. Once again I'm not trying to take your gun away just look at it from my side. If you feel the need for "protection" than you are one paranoid person. My job doesn't allow firearms on the property not even in your car, pretty sure they've never been robbed or anything. I don't think I've ever heard of a mass shooting being stopped by a private citizen who pulled out their liscensed hand gun and shot the shooter. That shit just doesn't happen. We need to have stricter gun laws, not taking them away from private citizens, just STRICTER, and we need to stop the sale of semi-automatic and assault rifles.
Few other points about the shooting I hear people say. This shooting is the medias fault b/c they make the shooters famous. What a bunch of shit, and what a way to get off the real problem, which is A) most of these people are mentally ill, and B) they have a fucking gun and are shooting people. The media is doing it's job, they are reporting the news, when anything bad happens people want to know why, what was the motive. You have to report on this b/c people need facts not hearsay. Pretty sure the media covered 9/11 and since then has anyone flown a plane into a building to become famous? NO, stop it with this garbage about how these people want to be famous, most of them take their own lives anyway so what fame do they have? These people do this b/c they have a mental illness of some sort and aren't getting the help they need. Blaming the media is like blaming video games and music, everyone plays those games, everyone listens to that music, and everyone watches or reads the news, everyone doesn't go into a mall or grade school and take lives. Often people try to find other areas to blame when the thing they stand for is the thing getting blamed for the problems. Guns don't kill people, the media who publizes the shooters kills people.
The last thing I'll talk about is mental illness. Everyone is fucked up a little, I think we all have a little mental illness. We all have quirks and things we do that are weird. I for one talk to myself out loud when I'm alone, sometimes I do it when people are around. I think in some way that could be considered mental illness of a sort. When I watch sports I'm slightly bi-polar, my team is down 2 runs I'm pissed, my team just hit a 3 run homer, I'm jumping up and down euphoric as ever. That's a little mental illnessey to me. I guess my point is we all can't get help, and the people who really need it barely get the help they need. This country as a whole needs to look at mentally ill people and try to figure out a way to get them help, let's face it if your gonna walk into a school and shot children your a little off. I don't have the answer for this problem I just think we need to start the discussion.
Those are my thoughts on this, you may not agree with them but please respect them. I'd love to have the discussion with anyone as long as we both agree to keep it civil. I respect your rights to have a gun, I know the need for guns, I'm not a gun hater, I just think these things could be stopped with a little more regulation and record keeping by the government.
You ever have those times you feel like writing about a topic, but you just can't put it into words what you wanna say. Well, I'm there on a topic right now but I don't have the time nor the patience to actully work on it, maybe if I get some time I'll work on it. In the mean time might as well stick to the format and keep giving my thoughts on the week that was.
What a game by the Redskins yesterday, sometime in the 2nd half my wife comes out and goes, how are you guys losing? I'm like well we keep kicking fg's instead scoring TD's. She goes well it seems like you have the ball the whole time. Yeah we dominated the 2nd half, and RG III and Kirk Cousins combined to drive the Skins down and get the tying TD and 2 point conversion.
Love that we got a kicker you can trust, Kai Forbath has been money since replacing Billy Cundiff.
Just saw the Ravens fired Cam Cameron, now that's funny, for how bad the Skins d has been this year. They get a coach fired, amazing.
5 weeks ago Mike Shanahan said we're gonna start evaluating to see who wants to be here next year, since then 4 wins in a row, a lot of people burried him for that quote. I think he lit a fire under this team and they've been playing lights out since then.
How annoying is it to watch the NY Giants, I can't stand any of them and every guy is the most amazing guy in the world. How is this team under the cap with all those pass rushers, WR's and Eli? Yesterday's game I watched the Dolphins-49ers and the Seahawks blowout of Arizona more than the Giants-Saints game.
Last nights game was almost as brutal to watch, the weather was cool and all but man those two teams need to be inside to play each other.
I'm all for player safety but for the 2nd week in a row a perfectly legal hit in a high profile game happened and it was flagged. Not sure if you saw it but check out Reggie Nelson's hit on Dez Bryant, he led with the shoulder to Bryant's chest yet somehow a flag came flying in from 20 yards away.
The Redskins got a gift on one of those calls yesterday as well, RG got hit clean by Haloti Ngata I believe and ref behind RG called leading with the helmet. Ngata lead with his forearms and when RG hit the ground his helmet came off. Is there such thing as too much protection?
Hey Dodgers feel free to keep spending money on losers, none of the guys you've gone after have ever done anything. In fact once Greinke left Milwaukee this year the Brewers got better. Have any of the guys your giving the farm too made a difference in a playoff series? Have they ever helped win a playoff series? That's right they haven't.
If you want to look at baseball teams who spend money they hardly ever win the World Series, the best Yankee teams from the 90's were full of home grown stars with guys peppered in. Since then they've had 1 championship where teams have spent Tens of millions less and have won rings.
Atlanta I'm not defending you anymore you gotta win a big game then win a playoff game. I like the Falcons but until they win I'm out.
Houston you need to win tonight, your in the same boat as Atlanta to me.
The Seattle screw job is starting to mess with my life now. The Seahawks are 1 game up on the Redskins for a playoff spot and that annoys me.
Andrew Luck, RG III, and Russell Wilson are all in playoff hunt with first and third of those guys currently in. This class of QB's could be one of the best ever, too bad Tannehill is in it to ruin the prospects.
Mad I missed the Iowa-Iowa St. basketball game Friday, but the Hawks won and this win could push them a long way.
Chicago is a mess and once again guys are hurt. Cutler left yesterday's game, and Brian Urlacher is done for the regular season, sad to see but when your old things like this happen. I usually pull for the Bears but not now since they are 1 game ahead of the Skins for the final playoff spot as well.
Don't drink and drive, I'm not gonna delve too deep on practice squad guys, but 2 weeks in a row 2 "NFL" players are dead. This is a problem for the league and they need to address it.
The last 3 weeks of the NFL are going to be exciting. A lot is yet to be decided especially in the NFC. I'll be back next week until then follow me on twitter @derekbredeson.
Figured I'd try to put some thoughts down from the past week. Didn't watch a lot of games yesterday, had family over but I saw a few things.
Green Bay needs a new kicker, can you trust Mason Crosby in a big playoff situation? I don't think so.
I hate Seattle
If your the 49ers yoiou gotta be sick, you lose 16-13, and your offense gave up 10 of those points, ouch. I'm not gonna say bench Kapernick but I don't think Alex Smith losses that game.
Another note on the 49ers why are you running stupid options and reverses inside the 10? Turn around hand the ball off and get out of the shadow of your endzone.
So tired of hearing about the Jets, most talked about sub 500 team this side of Philly.
Think NBC was a little pissed about last nights game? 2 sub 500 teams duking it out. I know everyone watches the Cowboys but enough is enough, wish some good teams could get in prime time.
Only reason I watched last night's game was hoping Brent Celek would catch enough balls you win me a fantasy match up other than that I didn't care.
The BCS Title game is gonna be awesome, I can't wait for it to happen. Alabama on Saturday looked pretty good, but I'd be a little worried about AJ McCarron who didn't throw a lot of passes in the 2nd half of the game.
Notre Dame better be ready for Yeldon and Lacy, 2 tough kids who run well behind a huge line.
Norhern Illinois is the BCS party crasher, but let's face it Wisconsin and Louisville are far more egregious than NIU. Side note NIU is 12-1, that loss came at the hands of the Hawkeyes.
Speaking of the BCS, it's hard to talk about who deserves to be in these games and who doesn't. Some people are upset Georgia didn't get in even though they played in the SEC champ game. Well sorry the system isn't perfect and when you have 21st Louisville and unranked Wisconsin both getting in based on conference titles. Then you throw in NIU having to get in b/c they're 15th, so that only leaves 2 at large spots left. Well Florida and Oregon are both top 5 so they should get in. When you deal with rankings and such it's hard to be "fair." Don't give me this sob story about Oklahoma not getting in, they're not even a top 10 team, if anyone should be pissed it's all those SEC teams who can't get in including Texas A&M who are maybe playing the best ball right now.
Speaking of Wisconsin what an ass kicking they handed out Saturday. I think the Badgers played like people expected them too all year. They were also helped by Taylor Martinez sucking ass.
How this is illegal is beyond me, this is possibly one of the best blocks of all time.
Johnny Manziel for Heisman
I have to talk a little about the Baseball Hall of Fame ballots being sent out, if you read my older posts my stance on this is known. I have no problem with guys who used PED's. In the case of 2 guys Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens they were both HOF guys before they're alleged used began. If you wanna keep out McGwire and Sosa that's fine with me b/c both guys were just power hitters, but Clemens and Bonds were both great players who used the stuff to hang around the game longer.
I'm starting to know why the Direct TV football package was cheaper this year, there aren't any games on. Week after week I'm trying to find games I want to watch and I never see them. For 1 the Skins have played 1 of the last 4 Sunday's, the entire reason I got the package was to watch them and 1 in the last month I've gotten to watch them on a Sunday.
The dumbest thing to happen is these Thursday night games, so dumb wish the NFL would stop shoving their network down our throats. Let's face it the Thursday games are a joke and I think 1 road team has won a game this year. The teams don't have enough time to prepare. Thanksgiving is 1 thing but to have these game every week for 16 weeks is dumb.
Hey Baltimore I know I said this a few weeks ago but give the rock to Ray Rice, please and thank you, no touches in the 4th quarter yesterday.
Hey Arizona if you need a QB pretty sure I can throw the rock and try to find Larry Fitzgerald, I can't be worse than the 3 guys you got.
I'm not a big predicion guy but I'll say tonight the Skins are gonna lose, the Giants have a ton of WR talent and the Skins can't cover anyone.
The playoffs are starting take shape with 3 teams clinching yesterday in Houston, Denver, and New England. That leaves 2 spots in the AFC up for grabs and Indy is in control of one of them. Amazing turn around in Indy.
That's it for this week probably not the most informative post I've done, but if you all take away from this is the Kenny Bell block well than that's alright by me. I'll be back next week in the mean time follow me on twitter @derekbredeson.
