Showing posts with label Football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Football. Show all posts

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Leatherheads and Ireland

Is there an unwritten (or written!) rule that says you have to apologize if you haven't blogged for a while? Good...moving on.




The movie I'd like to review is "Leatherheads" with George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, and a few other co-stars whose faces you may or may not recognize. That should cover just about everyone in the film. I didn't see this in theaters, but I wanted to! Does that count? We saw it on tv the other night and I thought it was pretty entertaining. It's about the rough beginnings of professional football. George is an "older" player on the Duluth Bulldogs pro-football team who are...well, let's just call them "free spirits" when it comes to playing football. Rules are made up as they go or not made up at all. Too bad their fun comes to an end when Congress appoints a Commissioner of football. Before that point, they have a lot of fun that includes harassing Renee and blackmailing John. What? You want more details? Sorry, you'll have take my word for it (don't sue me Lavar!) and check it out. Be wary of language and inuendo; especially language. Who knew they swore so much back then! Speaking of back then, I really like that George does these 20-30's period films. Did you love "O Brother Where Art Thou" too?





And now for the book. Have you ever been to Ireland? Well, you should go...now. It's beautiful, breathtaking really. And if you can't just now, why, just check out Frank Delaney's book, "Ireland". It will tell you the history of Ireland only not in the boring textbook style. First off, there's a fictional story that becomes the vehicle for the fascinating Irish stories. The fictional story isn't half-bad as well. But the Irish stories are the real star in this book. Have I been vague enough yet? Well, this book seems to be very hard to review...or it's too late at night. Or both. In any case, I highly recommend it. Warnings: language (you'll understand why when you visit Ireland) and some, well, hanky panky, nothing graphic though.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Football for a three year old.

So, Bryant got put down for a nap just before I started watching the game today. Being put down for a nap amounts to being sent into the downstairs bed room. He pretends to be asleep for a few minutes and then screams, Daddy, I already (pronounced: aw-eddy) did take a nap. Eventually, he either falls asleep or we give in. Well, after the interception drop in the second half, he started screaming and my heart was softened so I went and got him. We got back and I unpaused the game, and on comes the replay.

Bryant looked up at it and said, "Oh, he fumbled it." (All incomplete passes are fumbles.)
"No Bryant, it was incomplete. And it didn't count anyway."
"Didn't count? Why, Daddy?"
Now, Bryant's an awfully smart kid but the intricacies of the game are still a little beyond him. So I didn't try and explain the pass interference rule to him. But I wasn't quite sure what to say. I thought for a minute and he asked me again.
"The referee said that he was being naughty so they had to do it again."
"Oh, okay. He was being naughty."