I Love These Boys!

These past two days have been great for me as a fan. Not only did my Green Bay Packers beat da Bears, they beat them to win the NFC Championship and to go on to play in the Super Bowl! Looking back, it’s awesome to be able to say that during their Super Bowl season, I saw them play at the New Meadowlands and beat the Jets, and also that I went to Lambeau for the tour & Hall of Fame, too! Not bad for my first year as a full on Packers fan. At least this is all happening after I declared my allegiance so I don’t have to worry about the bandwagon tag. Not to mention, I have the family history to prove it. I think the matchup against the Steelers will be great to watch. Two respectable, old school football teams with amazing fan bases… doesn’t get much better than that. So excited to watch my boys from Green Bay go for their first Super Bowl since XXXI. Go Pack Go!

Before I leave the NFL thought… this Jay Cutler injury controversy- anybody have any thoughts? Several NFL players called him out, mostly via Twitter, saying that he was either not tough or that he was milking the “injury” because the game wasn’t looking too good for him. MJD, one of the players I used to respect, tweeted “Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT..” and later went on to tweet that he played the whole season on a hurt knee. Thing 1- You don’t talk about my coach like that. Urban had health issues and was not just “quitting” because things got tough. You’re not a Gator. You weren’t there. Shush if you don’t want a bunch of angry UF fans (a good chunk of the Jags fan base, just fyi) turning on you. We don’t handle criticism of our coach well. Thing 2- Last I checked, he was out for the last 2 weeks of the season with… what was it again?... Oh yeah, a knee injury. How can you call another player out with a claim about yourself that isn’t true? Lost my respect after that. Anyway, all that to say, with the Chicago Sun-Times saying MRI results show a sprained MCL for Cutler, are all the comments unfounded or were the players that said it wasn’t the question of the injury, but his demeanor and actions on the sideline that upset them justified?

Moving on, if you haven’t come to the realization by now, I absolutely love my Carolina Hurricanes! My Caniac girls and I made a last minute decision to snag some lower level seats to tonight’s game on StubHub, and I can safely say it was the best way I’d spent $38 in a while. The seats were great. The game had about as much drama as you can in an NHL game without going into OT. There were 2 legit fights. 6 goals (which means queso! Moe’s gives Canes fans free queso the day after the Canes score 5+ goals. It’s become a thing for us. Chants of queso, reference to goal #5 as the queso-winning goal or qwg. Good stuff.). A semi-comeback by the Leafs. Banners dropped for our All-Stars as it was the last home game before the All-Star break, game and festivities to be held in Raleigh this year, so extra exciting for us. My friends and I got on the jumbotron with our freshly-made signs for our boys. The franchise’s 1,000^th win as we battled through some rough officiating (as usual) to win 6-4 and get a much needed 2 points. Great night.

That being said, the road to the win was rough, mostly due to some seriously inconsistent officiating. It’s not just us. I am by no means saying the refs are picking on the Canes in particular. It’s being said around the league that certain refs let some things slide while others are more picky, and when you have dissension among the group of refs on the ice on any given night, or even differences in calls between groups at different games, the inconsistency makes it difficult to play, watch, and respect what’s going on in the NHL. The integrity of the game is being questioned for sure, and hopefully a refresher or difference in policy or something will happen asap re:officiating or it will just get even more out of hand. My favorite, Tuomo Ruutu, was getting checked quite a bit early on, though he got his share of retaliation, one recipient of said retaliation ending up sitting on the bench after a good shove sent him there. Things only escalated from there as Chad LaRose got into a fight, then shortly after, a scrum broke out which ended in Tim Gleason possibly busting Nikolai Kulemin’s face so much so that he had to leave the ice. Through all that going on, Brandon Sutter managed to continue his return to offensive visibility with 2 goals, making that 3 in the last 3 games. McBain launched in a 66 ft slapshot, Corvo and Skinner each had a power play goal, and Erik Cole sealed the game with an empty net shot. Skinner should have had a second goal, which Giguere scooped out from between his skate and the net pretty clearly on video, but after what felt like a 2 month review, the NHL gods said no. Absolutely ridiculous call, but one of many, and we’ve learned to battle through it and still manage to win.

Great win for my hockey boys following a great day for my football boys, and my Gator bball boys get ranked #23 for their first time making the board this season. Couldn’t be a happier fan.