hey, it's tuesday morning!

ah, tuesday. i'm currently listening to the jungle, starring jim rome. i love this show. it's sports talk, so i know it's not for everyone. i think rome does a great job with interview, insightful commentary, and is witty. he also gets a really good class of interviewies. one of the great things about this show is that it isn't about the callers. frankly, most callers to shows suck, and just ramble. rome makes the point of more of him and less of you. good idea. so, when you actually have a caller they usually do a good job. rome had trent dilfer on this morning, unfortunately i missed it.



remember the titans. ah, a good film. so, last night i came home and this movie was showing on abc. i think it was a directors cut or something, because there were several scenes that i don't remember. more on that in a second. this was a decent sports film, a good movie about the culture of the time, and had several good acting performances. there were also some that stunk. anyhow, the director & writer did some really good things. for instance, after the team wins the playoff game to send them to the state championship game, you feel the joy of the celebration. everyone's excited, the town seems to finally be behind the team. you can't help but smile. then the star player gets in a car wreck. i have seen the movie, knew it was coming, and yet i went from physically smiling and enjoying the movie to crying. like a switch was flipped. well done, well done.
my thoughts on the extra scenes - they were better off without them. really, most of them just seemed hokey and thrown in to show the backward towns people getting showed up by the snooty white kid or someone else on the team, and therefore they start gaining acceptance in the town. that isn't all that was deleted but this was definately a movie that was better off in its original format.
things that always bothered me about the movie: 1. the yoast's daughter. i don't care if this is inspired by a true story and everything that she did really happened. it was annoying. i have trouble believing that this little girl was a key part of the team's story, or that her own father would really listen to her about football or race relations. come on, the daughter comes down @ half time of the championship game, tells her dad that now isn't time to be proud, and he comes into the halftime speach and asks the head coach to basically take over the defense? uhh, doubt it.
2. the action of the football. parts were alright, and actually seemed like high school football. it was generally cut well enough, you could see a good portion of the field, it wasn't just all tight cut scenes were you only see one person at a time. what i hate about the modern sport movie, and this movie is guilty of it, is that every hit, every play seems like an espn highlight. in football, there's a hit called a decleater. basically, you hit your man hard enough that he's going to end up on his back, cleats in the air. almost every hit in this movie is a decleater. the skinny white qb lays about four of them down on the final play of the movie. just not realistic. in my four years of high school football, i don't think i ever put such a punishing hit on someone. we had some guys that we devastating hitters, and maybe i still only saw one or two real decleaters in 4 years. i guess alabama high school football is different, or that sports directors need to check themselves.

still, with a few problems, this was a well done movie. i would have liked to see a little more about really dealing with race issues at the time, but hey, disney made it. it had more than just the feel good disney feel. i'd give the movie a b+.


on yet another note, played golf out @ fresno west again on monday. i really like that place. they have a very well planned back 9. i think it's worth it for that. oh, that and the fact that it's $10 for cart & 18 holes of golf. still trying to have a little consistency in my game.

ed