Category: Football

The Start of Collective Bargaining: FDR and his Second Bill of Rights

Few people really understand, because it’s now been a couple of generation’s old, but life in America is not supposed to be as it is, and two definitive dates have moved America toward a socialist system that has greatly hampered the explosive growth that made our nation great. Those dates are the year of 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created, and income tax was implemented. The second is 1944 where a king seeking president in FDR created with great audacity the thought of a Second Bill of Rights.

The first Bill of Rights were an appeasement to the Anti-Federalists after years of arguing about the Constitution and the impact of a large centralized government. The Federalists made some concessions that became The Bill of Rights.

In 1944, FDR was fulfilling a long sought after promise of progressives, which his cousin Teddy Roosevelt helped begin, to create a better, more fair world, which were a direct play-book from socialist thought. FDR like his cousin, whom I admire because of his energy and intelligence, suffered from a desire for power, and a belief that he was one of the elites that were enamored by God to help the less-fortunate.

So FDR created his own Bill of Rights that reflected directly the Communist Manifesto and attempted to implement it. He had no right or authority to do it, but he did it anyway, while the nation was at war, which we are still feeling the impact of those drastic, and un-American concepts.

American exceptionalism is unique because the people who fought and survived in this growing nation bred children that reflected the tenacity of the pioneers that worked hard, were inventive, and loved freedom. But as more and more immigrants came from Europe, with European ideas those ideas began to compete with the ideas of our Founding Fathers, which were working dramatically, as is evidence in the great number of inventions and rapid expansion of our cityscapes in a very short time, even while the nation was still reeling from the Civil War.

Progressivism came from Europe. It was loved by the Roosevelt’s like Teddy, and FDR, because they liked European politics, unlike our Founding Fathers, and thus the Second Bill of Rights was initiated.

Walter Lippmann, the hero of modern media, was a progressive and advocate of The Second Bill of Rights. It was a young Lippmann that sat in Teddy’s home in the last days of TR and attempted to coax Teddy to continue the progressive march, which TR had lost interest in after Taft left the presidency. TR primarily became a progressive to fight his old friend in President Taft because he felt pushed out of the Republican Party. But younger cousin FDR was a true blue progressive which is a fancy word for a socialist and the New Deal was a socialist concept.

A much older Walter Lippmann stated at the time that the New Dealers would “Rather not have a recovery if the revival of private initiative means a resumption of private control in the management of corporate business…the essence of the New Deal is the reduction of private corporate control by collective bargaining and labor legislation, on the one side, and by restrictive, competitive and deterrent government action on the other side.” That statement embodies most everything that the press speaks to this day, and socialist leaning union members, film makers, and politicians that hide their beliefs in socialism behind the Democratic Party, or under the more encompassing term, progressive.

Here is FDR reading his Second Bill of Rights from 1944. Just like a king from a far away land, he consults his subjects in a similar manner, which is fundamentally an incorrect American philosophy. Unfortunately, for those in society that have a tendency to be skittish by nature, socialism is an attractive idea because they naturally lack courage. Those are the kind of people who embraced FDR and his New Deal policies.

“The Economic Bill of Rights”
Excerpt from President Roosevelt’s January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union[1]:
“ It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.”[2] People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
Americas own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

FDR attempted to hang on to his presidency by running for 4 terms. It is because of him that the United States began term limits for the presidency, like a king that seeks the meaning of his existence in an elected position. It was easy for FDR to continue getting elected, because the weak side of human nature will always like the person that gives them things, and FDR was giving away things that weren’t his. He is most responsible for the budget mess that we are currently in. And he wasn’t the end. Today, the progressive tradition is alive and well in financiers like George Soros, Presidents like Barrack Obama, and appointments to the Obama administration such as regulatory tzar, Cass Sunstein.

Cass Sunstein is working toward a different kind of America. People like me completely reject what Cass proposes.

This is a video from Cass Sunstein during 2006, long before he was Obama’s regulatory tzar. He is exactly why the FDR’s Second Bill of Rights would never work, because people like Cass are weak-kneed intellectuals that would rather have price fixes instead of allowing competition to drive the market.

My mind has been emancipated individually, so Cass is wrong, completely wrong. In fact, he’s so far off base he’s not even in the same city of the team he thinks he’s playing for. If he had things his way, to put it in everyday terms, if you let Cass Sunstein manage the NFL, every player at each position would have to weigh the same, would have to run just as fast, would be able to bench press the same amounts, the QB’s would have to be identical, because neither team would be allowed to have an advantage over the other team. That is basically the world FDR, and Cass Sunstein have been trying to create for the United States. It is socialism. Pure and simple.

The ghosts of these follies continue to resonate in the minds of people everywhere. It is these Second Bill of Rights that are uttered in union protests. They want the promises made by a man who had no right to squander American Ingenuity by robbing private industry and giving it to all those who are too lazy to match the task, yet had the power of the vote. So the man in FDR gave people something for nothing and took from those that had something at the expense of the future, and he did it for his quest of kingdom, the oldest, and most primal desire known to man.

I can say that I recognize nothing in the Second Bill of Rights. If it isn’t in the Constitution it doesn’t exists. I will continue to pay my income tax, which progressives are robbing from me. I will pay my Social Security, and my Medicare which progressives are robbing from me out of respect for the law, even though I believe the minds behind the law are no better than insects. But I will never take a check from the government. I will never cash in on a “pay day” of spoils provided by “the system.” I want nothing to do with it, and once they’ve robbed me of my money, that money is corrupted by their corrupt hands and I no longer want it.

Progressives and their collective salvation disgust me to my very soul. They will never be qualified to advise me, or help me in any way, shape or form because the value of what they have to offer is only a diminished quality of what they took from me to begin with.

Thus, that is the essence of taxation and the term “collective bargaining.”

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Earthday and Progressive Threats to Break the Law: Trumka, Obama and spring break kids want you driving electric cars

In Cincinnati gas is $3.83 per gallon for one reason, because a certain percentage of our government has listened to special interest green technology lobbyists who have prevented the use of oil in our own country. On Earthday, which is today, if you want to see where we’re going and why the economy is having trouble, and why gas prices are going up, read the book Atlas Shrugged. You’ll learn how thieves like the woman on Doc Thompson’s show have shaped public opinion to achieve the economic situation we find ourselves in. We are being “nudged” to green technology by the same tactic that government seeks to combat smoking and alcohol consumption, and that’s through increases in cost. Listen to the mind of such a person, captured here for your amusement on 700 WLW.

I’m not sure who she’s talking about, but there isn’t anybody smarter than me to make decisions off in some far away land. But that’s how progressives think, that somewhere out there, there’s people more qualified to make decisions on our behalf. No they’re not. There isn’t anybody on this planet that I I’d seek advice from, certainly not some goofy politician in Washington. I enjoy talking to other intelligent people, but they often come to the same conclusions as I do because right is right and when you know the right answers everybody that knows it can see it. They may not agree word for word with the things I do or say, but I don’t look to them to guide me in any way. The chick in that interview is a big government progressive and is useless to American society.

My wife and I took my daughter car shopping today and I made sure she didn’t pick some electric car that had trouble running under 100 MPH. My mind was on the recent reports on electric cars while we looked. The day before today’s Earthday show on WLW the Nissan Leaf won the 2011 World Car of the Year award at the New York International Auto Show, beating out the short list of three finalists — the Audi A8 and the BMW 5 Series. The Leaf was the first electric vehicle to win the award.
According to the jurors, Nissan‘s electric car has a lot going for it:

“The Leaf is the gateway to a brave new electric world from Nissan. This 5-seater, 5-door hatchback is the world’s first, purpose-built, mass-produced electric car. Dropped onto a unique platform and body, the Leaf’s lithium-ion battery modules and electric motor generate 108hp and 206 lb ft of torque, propelling the hatch from zero to 60mph in 11.5 seconds and a top speed of 90mph. It has a range of over 100 miles on a full charge (claims Nissan), takes around 8 hours to recharge using 220-240V power supply and produces zero tailpipe emissions. Its low center of gravity produced sharp turn-in with almost no body roll and no understeer. The good news? It feels just like a normal car, only quieter.”
Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2010/09/08/495418.html

Is it any surprise that our government, which is pushing green technology isn’t doing anything about the extortion of fuel prices, so that Americans go out and buy cars like this stupid “Leaf.”

I’ve driven for many years electric-powered forklifts. They work well enough and similar to propane powered lift trucks without the emission. The biggest downfall of electric vehicles is the battery technology. It takes too long to charge them and they run out of power too fast. And they aren’t new. It’s been over a decade with millions and millions of dollars of research done and battery technology still can’t last much longer than 8 hours with constant use on a shipping dock. And a car that only goes 100 miles per 8 hour charge is not a replacement for oil powered vehicles. Not even close!

100 miles won’t even get you from Cincinnati to Lexington. What good is that in the United States? If someone drives from Cincinnati to Columbus and they go 100 miles, do they plug in their car to their business power supply? 8 hours later, they can drive home, is that how it works? Because who is paying for the power station, the persons employer? What happens when the government nudges everyone into electric cars? With gas prices being as high as they are, I have to conclude that the government under the Obama and the gang intend for everyone in America to buy electric cars, which is why the government swept in and bought General Moters, so they could build the “Volt.” What happens when everyone plugs in their cars when they get to work and everyone has to unplug them when it’s time to leave and return home?

I currently have employees that drive over 50 miles to get to work. What if their battery doesn’t fully charge, because I’m not going to let them plug the vehicles in at work? They will have to plug them in at home. Having a fully charged battery is their responsibility. So what if they get to work but don’t have the power to get back to their house? Will they have to stop by Burger King on the way home and plug into some outside power outlet? Then will they have to wait for 8 hours to get a full charge, because if they short-cut the charge, they’ll shorten the life of the battery. If they plug-in for an hour, just enough to get home, they’ll screw up the battery capacity. Then, how do they pay Burger King for the power? Who pays for that portion of the electric bill?

And nobody has explained to me how this electric car saves emissions, because the power plant is still producing the energy of the combustion engine, it is just producing it in stored energy that is manufactured at a central location. The energy created is actually lost along the line of moving from the power plant to the outlet of your house. The energy produced in a combustion engine is more efficient because there is less lost in the drop off of an immediate explosion as opposed to the manufacture and distribution of creating electrons. The process of creating power still comes from a process of turbulent, explosive energy converted either to the force of driving an engine piston, or the creation of an electron to travel down a power line to a power outlet hundreds of miles away.

Then another problem emerges; a 220 outlet is not a typical outlet. That’s what you might run a washer and dryer off of. So to charge up the car, you’ll have to have a special outlet in your garage. A standard outlet is 110 so people won’t be able to do like I suggested at Burger King and sneak the power away secretly from an outside outlet.

All those things are bad, but the worst of all is the name of these stupid electric cars. In America we have names for cars like Mustang, Charger, Firebird, Thunderbird, that’s what American’s like to buy. What did they call this stupid car……………….a Leaf? A LEAF! Who wants to drive around a car named after a plant? Leaves are something that decays and blows away. Whose stupid idea was it to name a car after something fragile like a leaf?

That is a typical government type of name for a product. These are the same type of overly specialized fools that conceived that the solution to the unemployed in Florida was to buy people who didn’t have job capes. What a brilliant marketing idea by clueless, useless people, the same type of people who came up with the name “The Leaf.”

So, what kind of mind created those types of people? What are the students that go to college and learn how to brain-storm and come up with names like “The Leaf” and capes for the unemployed like? Have a look at what students do in their leisure time to understand how they’ll behave in business when they graduate. Here are tomorrow’s keepers of the world taking a little downtime from the hard studies of university. Progressives think all this behavior is good and healthy for young people.

While you watch the gas prices go up, know in your mind the type of fool and thief that is creating policy that is hurting your pocketbook on half-baked, thoughtless endeavors suitable only for a drunk. That is what the Leaf is and the stupid cape ideas are and the nudging of American society into electric cars while we function with our hands tied behind our backs with regulation is an attack on Americanism. Meanwhile, the Obama administration will grant Brazil a deep-sea drilling license to help that country economically and distribute the wealth of our nation and allow our economy to crumble…..on purpose.
Here are those spring break kids all grown up. These are the people who stand in the way of American growth and economic development. They are parasites that loot our taxes and fill their pockets. These are the progressive groups behind the electric car push.

These are the people who are distracting us with their progressive agenda while the Federal Reserve has robbed all American’s of 21.4% of the value of the dollar over an 8 year period. Do you know what that means? That means each dollar you make is only worth .79 cents on the dollar over an 8 year period. Why? Why are we worried about unions and pensions for public employees and collective bargaining while the Fed is openly robbing us, and our government won’t let our nation drill for oil while driving up oil prices to push people to buy electric cars?

Here Obama calls people like me, that want government to be smaller, radical. This is the “soft sale” where he sits down with a bunch of kids and sells a progressive agenda, which he has no right to perpetuate. Yes, people like me do appear to be radical from the view-point of the radical left, that is hell-bent on a progressive government.

See, here’s the problem. I don’t want the world those idiots are selling us. I don’t like what Obama is doing. I don’t like the green movement for all the reasons shown in the interview with Doc Thompson. And I will not put up with union officials breaking the law to advance a progressive philosophy that they expect us to pay for with tax payer dollars all the while the Fed is lowering the value of our money to reduce the wealth of the United States to be redistributed to Brazil and China. We are at war ladies and gentlemen. Progressives against traditionalists.

So here’s how it’s going to work, and this is a note to progressives. You better respect the law because once you eliminate it, such as what the union boys of Trumka and his thugs are doing, you create a free-for-all environment where the rules can be broken the other way too.

And I’m quite good at playing that game………………………………..better than any of you.

So bring it on all you goons, punks and freaks. I will not allow you to advance a progressive agenda and you will not be able to stop me. Attack all the big media names and networks, but it won’t matter. Because you are on the wrong side of the law right now and you leave yourselves open to retaliation with your lack of legal respect and manipulation.

This kind of fight does not require armies of people, just the truth. For every cent of fuel increase, you are breaking the law more and more, because you are stealing from us all in so many ways that everyone now realizes that we’re being taken advantage of. So call us radical, but that’s calling the kettle black. I’m like many of the so-called radicals that just want you fools out of our lives while the progressives are involved in a massive social engineering experiment that I want no part of. And once you involve me, and you have, you started a fight you won’t win.

As to those silly little electric cars, 90 mph isn’t fast enough to be relevant on the highway. I’ll leave a fair warning to stay in the slow lane or I’ll run right over them with my motorcycle. Better go back to the drawing board and rethink that whole concept, because electric cars are underpowered and useless in American society and are not part of the future of this country.

Oh, and good news while I’m writing this: the book Atlas Shrugged is now number 4 on Amazon.com’s sales list. That’s great news. People are learning how the game is played, and they’re primed to take the nation back from the clueless progressive.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Jim Tressel, John Kasich Speak From the Fires of Columbus

The nation’s eyes were on Columbus, Ohio March 8th, 2011 for more than one reason, but shared a common sickness.Here is a clip from Governor Kasich’s State of the State speech and the reaction from those that don’t agree with S.B.5. Of note is the teacher upset that she is about to lose her retirement.

One thing that we must wonder is where did those people riding the system with such wonderful benefits think the money was coming from? With all their education didn’t they do the math? Did they think the system could grow and grow and grow without the revenue running out at some point?

The answer is, no, they didn’t. Because such realities are ugly truths that school administrations and other tax payer funded organizations seek at every opportunity not to consider.

For Police and Firefighters, they use a perceived “danger” to justify their extraordinary costs. “We run to danger when others run away.” It takes an argument away from logic and places it in emotion, so the people who fund the whole business don’t think about the reality, because most people want to run away from danger and will gladly throw any amount of money at a situation to “feel” safe.

But in schools, the way they disguise their perils is through sports. Sports are a wonderful unifying factor that virtually everyone can sympathize with and it keeps people entertained and from prying too deeply into the secrets that are pushed under the carpet.

This is why when it was discovered that Jim Tressel, head coach of the OSU Football Program had covered up improprieties at Ohio State University that many on the inside were well aware of, or had plausible deniability, but on the outside Ohio State is marketed as a beacon of academic and athletic excellence. So to appease the growing anger at having been caught attempting to cover up improper behavior from players on the football team, the school imposed a two game suspension and fined Tressel $250,000 of his $3.5 million annual salary.

For details of those improprieties listen to this exchange between Bill Cunningham and Lance McAlister of 700 WLW.

Ohio State hopes that the NCAA will be appeased and not implement further punishment to the football program. After all, Ohio State is one of the largest universities in the country. Its football team is nationally recognized and in the end, this is wonderful advertisement for the school that sells a tremendous amount of merchandise to former alumni and potential students. It’s big business.

To understand that business a bit I refer to the great film, The Program staring James Caan which came out in 1993. Caan reminds me a lot of Jim Tressel in that film so if you want to understand the situation of college football, and how it is used to sell the university system to millions of fans, have a look at this clip.

Improprieties are routinely overlooked because it’s a competitive world especially in sports, and the difference between winning and losing for a university is millions of dollars. But why? Because if the public perception can be built around a “program” and the public feels their money is going to produce a winner, people have shown time and time again that they are willing to look the other way to have victory.

Much of the film The Program, James Caan’s character is putting out fires from his players that are constantly getting in trouble. But as Caan said in a review board considering suspension of the star quarterback, “70,000 people don’t come out on a Saturday to see other students do math! They come out to see a star!”

Ohio State and it’s fans will seek quickly to put this whole issue behind them, and on opening day it will be forgotten, except for Tressel’s absence and the suspension of the other suspended players, because everyone wants to look the other way, because the fans, students, administration, even the sports world want to discuss a winner.

How does all this apply to John Kasich’s speech, which occurred just hours before the Tressel press conference? Well, because tax payers are finally out of money to throw at police and firefighters that run into danger while the rest of us run away. Many of us, me included, are saying “I’ll be happy to run into danger if it will save me some money.” Danger doesn’t impress me as something to avoid.

And the whole teaching profession has hidden carefully behind the marketing machine of sports. Even small schools have sports programs that communities will seek to attend on an autumn Friday evening. The dirty little secret is that when people look back on their education days, they usually remember the things they did, the games they played and the events they did with their friends as opposed to what they learned on a Thursday in February during history class. Most of the teachers in student’s lives come and go as a montage of faces. Occasionally a teacher here and there jumps out as exceptional, but for the most part the education process is viewed as something to be endured, not embraced and because of that little fact, the education finance system has placed band-aid after band-aid on the situation. Administrators attempt to whisk improper sex cases and other improprieties between students and teachers under the carpet behind public relations consultants and friendly newspapers in the trade-off for sports information. After all, sports pages occupy whole sections of newspapers and reporters need content to fill those pages. And for some households, the sports page offers entertainment that their own child may actually be a part of, and that’s exciting.

Discussion of the blurred lines between education and sports must occur in order to discuss the revenue needs of those institutions. This is something that will come under increasing scrutiny, especially when it comes to School Choice as a spotlight on academics will become the focus with less attention applied to sports programs.

The battles that our society normally regulated to football players on a football field are now migrating into finance and politics, because the real fight has been discovered to be there, not in an entertainment venue between the hash marks. The world is changing because of that shift and those that cling to the old model will find their eyes filled with tears because in this game there will be winners and losers, just like in football. And we can no longer hide those tears with the cheers of football, and the sins that are committed all in the name of winning, because that ethical approach has bankrupted us both financially and morally.

Just look at Jim Tressel, the poster boy of both finance and ethics at Ohio State University to understand what Kasich is trying to protect Ohio from.

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

The NFL Crises: Doc Thompson Attacks “Collective Bargaining” and wants to start a sports union!

With the NFL Labor Dispute looming the largest casualty of this “collective bargaining” issue between the players and the NFL owners is the fans.

Doc Thompson discusses many of the NFL issues and introduces the concept of a sports fan union to protect the fans from labor disputes.

Here are the issues involved in the NFL Labor dispute. You can see the original article here from John McClain.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/7454328.html

Key issues in the NFL labor dispute:

Q: What is the difference between a lockout and a strike?
A: The owners lock out the players. The players go on strike. The players went on strike in 1982 and 1987.
Q: What are the primary issues behind a lockout?
A: The NFL generates approximately $9 billion a year. The owners take $1 billion off the top for expenses. The players get 59.6 percent of the remaining revenue. The owners believe that’s too much. The owners want to take another $1 billion off the top. The owners also want an 18-game schedule and a rookie wage scale that would cap salaries for draft choices. No top pick would be guaranteed $50 million, as St. Louis quarterback Sam Bradford was last year.
Q: What happens when the lockout begins?
A: There can be no contact between players and their teams. They’re not supposed to communicate. No players will be signed, including rookies, and no trades can be made.
Q: What about players who are undergoing treatment for injuries?
A: Players are on their own, but teams were able to set up a place for players to undergo rehabilitation.
Q: What about players working out, lifting weights and doing what would have been organized team activities?
A: Players are on their own as far as finding a place to lift and work out. Eventually, they’ll practice on their own. When the lock-out ends, those in the best shape should start faster.
Q: How long is the lockout likely to last and could we miss games?
A: The NFL lost seven games in 1982 and four in 1987 because of player strikes. This time, both sides would lose a lot of money. Some owners are determined to get back a large portion of revenue that goes to players. The players will have to give something back.
Q: Will there be a draft in April?
A: Yes. Players aren’t union members until they sign and pay dues.
Q: Can drafted players sign?
A: No.
Q: Can other players sign?
A: No.
Q: When do players start losing money?
A: Those with roster bonuses in March won’t be paid. That’s more than $200 million. Players draw game checks over 17 weeks, starting when the regular season begins in September.
Q: Won’t the 500 players who’d be free agents and those who would have gotten the $200 million in roster bonuses force the union to make a deal?
A: They might try to, but they’ve been warned for two years to save their money. The union will do a deal when it believes it has the best one possible.
Q: What about the ruling this week that the owners can’t spend the television network money they’re getting?
A: A special master ruled in favor of the owners. The players filed an appeal. Federal Judge David Doty ruled in favor of the players, saying the owners can’t spend the money. For instance, owners need money to make payments on their stadiums, practice facilities, etc. They’ll have to find other revenue. The owners will appeal Doty’s ruling, which could take months.
Q: Will it help for the union to decertify?
A: Every team gave the union the right to decertify. Unions can’t sue their bosses. If there’s no union, the players can sue the owners and hope they win in court. That’s a risky business for both sides. If players decertify, they can always reform as a union.
Q: Is there any individual in the NFL who has the power and respect to influence both sides and help get a deal done?
A: In 1982 and 1987, Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney played an instrumental role in helping settle the player strikes. But he’s older, and he’s the ambassador to Ireland and may not have another fight in him. Rooney said during the playoffs he was against the 18-game schedule because the players don’t want it, and he’d rather make less money than force it down the players’ throats. No wonder the players respect him so much. As it stands now, commissioner Roger Goodell is the most likely candidate because he’s respected by both sides.

john.mcclain@chron.com

The shame in all this discussion is that the fans just want to look forward to football. Most people who spend their Sunday afternoons drinking beer and watching football would be willing to give an arm and a leg to have the opportunity to play professional football, let alone be paid so well that they’d never have to work again.

The NFL situation better be solved soon, but I don’t have faith in a resolution. I personally think that the owners will lock out the season because the upfront costs of rookie players is just too great, and there isn’t any way the owners can guarantee that the money will find its way to veteran players. And my thoughts about “collective bargaining” are the same as they are for the public sector workers. I’m not a fan.

My advice to the players is to take what the owners offer and get on the practice field and start playing football, because the fans want their football. Give it to them!

Rich Hoffman

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Generation Y and the Bland Superbowl: Why Kids are so weak, blame the babyboomers

Watching the Superbowl “event” on Sunday February 6, 2011 everything from the Star Spangled Banner to the Half-Time Show convinced me that finally the detrimental effects of the Baby Boom Generation had finally shown its dismal failure in Generation Y.

Listen to this simple-minded Generation Y Guy analyzing Glenn Beck  discussing the Superbowl.

The Superbowl is a wonderful reflection of American society, from the commercials, the nature of the competition, the glitz and glitter, and the hunger for entertainment. For years, especially since the Janet Jackson publicity stunt, the NFL has played it safe with older acts during the halftime show that were at least mature enough to keep their cloths on.

This Superbowl though had a peculiar blandness to it that was unique to 2011. This is the year we are collectively facing the massive bankruptcies that are challenging virtually every program created by government in this last century. This is also the first year that I have almost no interest in the films being nominated at the Academy Awards.

There is something cheap in films these days, much like everything else. It probably has something to do with the emergence of Netflix and the downfall of Blockbuster. The emergence of cheap, big screen televisions, and the film distributors and production houses banking on 3D to keep people wanting to go to the theater, and not waiting for the film to show up on their Xbox where all they have to do is push a button and the film arrives.

The music industry too is in the same boat, because of IPods and downloadable music, investment in music is on the decline. Where are the Michael Jackson’s or the Elvis’s today? The Black Eyed Peas earned my respect with the fantastic live performance on Saturday Night Live when they played Hey Mama. So I had high expectations that their half time show would be great. But what came out was four used up people who looked tired, as if the entire music industry was hanging its hat on them while they experiment with other revenue sources and commitment behind artists.

If you look at American Culture we are bankrupt in almost every facet you can think of. Our cars are behind. Our manufacturing is behind. Our aviation is behind. Our culture is behind, and preoccupied with a one world utopia, which Americans don’t want. (hint, hint entertainment industry. That’s why you’re revenues are down) Our financial institutions are stressed to the max, and our entitlements that we’ve built through politics are out of money. Things are so bad, that even American Football is on hold till a contentious labor dispute is settled, which I don’t think will happen in time to save the season. I think the owners will turn away from a season because it will hurt the players worse, and owners need to get their upfront money invested in players fixed. And they also have to listen to market demand which wants a longer season and they’ll find a way to provide that.

So who’s to blame?

Doc Thompson is asking the same questions and he discusses that here. His theory is that it all falls on the Baby Boomers.

He’s right.

I’ve never been happy with the Baby Boomers. Even when I was a kid I thought they were off. It never made sense to me why they seemed to count their lives in a declining value from the age of 30 on. They craved to always be 16 to 18 years old and built their whole collective psychology around that yearning. I’ve also despised that. Even when I was young, the people I most identified with were senior citizens, because they knew how to live and didn’t expect life to be comfortable.

When I came to work today it was hovering around zero degrees with a wind chill down around -10. There was much astonishment from other drivers who watched me drive my 1500 CC motorcycle down the frozen asphalt well before the sun came up. Most of those people were baby boomers and members of Generation X who were around my current age. I will have to admit that I have pity on almost all of those people, because they view aging as a regressing process. Many of the people of my generation and the baby boomers strive for their lives at the end of high school and start of college. Those are the best days of their lives.

I see my own life as improving each year. When I was younger I dreamed of being the age I’m at right now with the physical presence to do anything I want, and the wisdom to match it. Part of the reason I walk several miles a day, ride motorcycles in the cold and work with bullwhips and medicine balls like toys while my mind contemplates thousands of topics simultaneously, is because I love living life. Avoiding pain is avoiding life. I wouldn’t trade anything in the world to even go backwards one year. I enjoy every birthday as an opportunity to become even better than the last year. That’s why I name this site the way I do, because I’m always leaning forward to learn and be better. Complacency and failure are simply not options.

But complacency is the fad of the modern age and it started with those lazy, baby boomers. And they started the trend we see now, where a whole generation of young people are lost and clueless. You can see it in young people everywhere you look. They are overly commercialized and have lost the ability to think critically. They are a lost generation, and it’s really not their fault. It’s the fault of Generation X that didn’t solve the problems of the Baby Boomers and all the issues Doc Thompson brought up in his discussion above.

That’s why the Superbowl seemed flat to me, less spectacular than in years past, and somehow distracted and aloof. It was the first time I visibly noticed that the social problems we’ve all been holding back and pushing under the rug, started to show even above all the festivities of an American Ritual.

And this is how it’s supposed to sound! Don’t make a joke of it next year just to play to the younger crowd. They don’t know the difference. But some of us do.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Trolley Car of Terror: Breaking the Budget of Cincinnati Soon

One of the problems with a representative government is if the per capita population is of a certain class, or political persuasion then the representatives will likely represent those people in political ideology. And if those values of the population are built on entitlements, and liberal ideas, it is no surprise that the city councils and mayors will seem to reflect that hand-out culture.

Cities for decades have lost some of their best and brightest residents to the suburbs while the percentage of the population that embraces welfare policies have migrated to the cities where protection of their entitlements are safe from public scrutiny.

The Streetcar in Cincinnati is just one such project that is supported by a clueless city council and liberal mayor. To them, the 50 million the project will cost comes from some giant government entity in the land of Obama where the money grows on trees and is handed out to needy citizens, so the streetcar cost is not of consequence.

Instead, the mayor and liberal council members are looking at old data of their favorite cities and wanting to bring the nostalgia of a streetcar to the streets of Cincinnati.

Listen to Doc Thompson discuss this issue with Chris Finney of COAST.

What these political representatives admit by endorsing this streetcar is that they have no idea of how to lure talent and corporations back to the city. They cling to silly ideas like a trolley car and think young people and companies will find it an attractive magnet to industrious behavior within the city. When the reality is it is just another example of ignorant politicians grabbing for straws while they blow their own horns of accomplishment. True reform to a city can’t happen in an election cycle, and the residents they represent may not understand good business practice. A trolley car is something that people can see, so it gives the elected officials something to take credit for.

How many projects like this trolley car project have been implemented over the years for just such a silly reason? How many bridges were built for the same reason? How many ridiculously expensive projects implemented only for the protection of a political seat.

That’s all this $50 million trolley car in Cincinnati is. It’s a waste of money. It’s an appeasement to a population with a short attention span and it is actually technically going backwards instead of forward with use of technology.

If this project was regulated to only Cincinnati and these clueless politicians end up bankrupting the city continuing to drive away companies and talented people leaving only the portion of the population desiring entitlements, then Cincinnati will become bankrupt, and will fail as a city. The problem, in the end is that the state of Ohio won’t be able to let a city fail, so the tax payers of Ohio will have to bail this city out even though the politicians have shown they don’t have fiscal understanding and can’t manage their own finances. So the Ohio tax payer will compensate for the politicians bad, foolish decisions.

That’s why I’m a huge “NO” on the trolley car in downtown Ohio. There are other forms of transportation and if the Cincinnati Reds, or the Cincinnati Bengals or the new Casino wants a way to get young people transported from Clifton to the Riverfront, well then let them pay for it. Cincinnati built to stadiums that are putting serious financial strain on the city. $50 million more for a useless form of transportation that is only attractive to the entitlement culture is not a wise use of taxpayer funds.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Who is Stacy Schuler? Reading between the lines.

(On July 13th 2011 Stacy Schuler plead guilty by reason of insanity to these charges.  I took a lot of heat for putting this post up by members of the union who wanted to take the light off this situation.  However, since this case, many of the guilty with knowledge of the case have left town for new jobs hoping to cool things down.  And now Schuler has declared herself guilty hoping to get a plea deal for a lesser charge to the charges leveled at her.  So, read this article again knowing what you know now and compare it to what we knew then and do as I do, and that’s wonder how many more “insane” teachers are out there asking for money and claiming that they can teach our kids more than the parent.)

Also consider the date of the article in which she gave the interview below.  She was “supposedly” insane while she was speaking to the reporter.  However, the Mason School System had enough confidence in her to use her to help sell their school levy to the public, even as she had another relationship with her direct supervisor, George Coates going on during all this activity. 

To see more about the Stacy Schuler situation check out these articles as well:

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/the-tragedy-of-stacy-schuler-the-real-crime-is-still-under-the-rug/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/all-about-the-stacy-schuler-sex-case-whos-responsible/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/sex-murder-teachers-and-the-taxpayer-ryan-widmer-and-the-mason-teacher/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/stacy-schuler-is-bait-in-the-water-the-real-problem-is-whats-holding-the-fishing-pole/

https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/so-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it-sex-money-and-public-schools/

Now, the article as it appeared originally when the story broke.

 

________________________________________________________

I don’t really want to pick on this young woman. She is innocent until proven guilty. But there are some facts that we already know and whether or not a jury convicts her of the charges leveled in her direction only time will tell. She certainly involved herself in behavior that is left to debate. The severity of that behavior will be up to the prosecutor and a jury to decide which will establish new social standards moving forward.

What I’m interested in when I run into an article like the one written below by the Mason High School’s online magazine, The Cronline, is what is the overall message.  The Cronline is a student magazine at the school which is designed to create an impression to the public and give student reporters a way to hone their reporting skills.  So it’s partly an education device for the school and a public relations arm. 

When I read articles like the one below, I can’t help but see patterns hidden in the wording. It’s a habit of mine.  You could say I’ve made a living seeing what other people overlook. So I went back and re-read this article that I remembered from right after the levy campaigns in November 2010 ended. I took it back then as a nice PR piece that teachers do to let parents know that their kids are in good hands with ambitious professionals. My initial impression was I thought Stacy was putting a lot of emphasis on being busy, and was probably trying to hide the fact that she was actually bored, and the slant of the writing was to help make parents want to vote “yes” for their levy in November.  However something seemed wrong with it that I couldn’t quite get my teeth in it. But because it was Mason, and not Lakota, I left it alone.

When this sex scandal story broke I went back to see if I could find that article online, because I thought I recognized the name, and found that The Cronline still had it up, so I posted it below before they took it down. I thought it would be interesting now, knowing what we know about the 16 count indictment that she is accused of sexual battery of 5 football players, and having a sexually oriented relationship with the assistant principle of the same school, to look at the below interview with the eyes of psychological analysis. So read the article below. I’ll highlight the sections that I think were particularly revealing about her character.

 

____________________________________________________

The balancing act
October 29, 2010 No Comments
Between five jobs, Schuler uses meditation, organization to control stress
Janica Kaneshiro | Staff Writer

A common excuse among high school students is, “I didn’t have time,” and many times, they feel like their teachers don’t understand their busy schedules, according to Mind and Body Wellness and Sports Medicine teacher Stacy Schuler. She said what many don’t realize is that school is just one aspect of many teachers’ lives. For example: Schuler has five other jobs.

“I teach at Mason High School,” Schuler said. “I work for Atrium Medical Center, so that means I do athletic training at Mason and other schools that Atrium covers. I work for Miami Valley Hospital. I do athletic training for [Alter High School], and I also do strength and conditioning [there]. I also work for the sports advantage clinic [at Miami Valley Hospital], and that’s for people who do post-surgery rehab, and athletes trying to improve their fitness. I [also do] yoga and personal training at people’s houses.”

Senior Justin Lamb, who works with Schuler after school in the training room and at the Atrium as an intern, said she has taught him various ways to deal with time constraints.

“She’s taught me a lot,” Lamb said. “With physical training everything is about time management. She’s taught me that you have to keep everything in place for everybody, like water for the football players and dealing with injuries in a timely manner. She’s really good at managing her time; she has to be.”

Schuler said she understands that students sometimes have hectic schedules since her own demanding lifestyle is crazy.
“Kids [say], ‘You don’t understand; you don’t know what it’s like to be busy,’” Schuler said. “But I’m like, ‘Yes, I really do understand what it’s like to be busy.’ Sometimes I laugh because I feel like students don’t see teachers as anything else besides the [people] standing in front of the class.”

Besides just her paying jobs, Schuler said her other time commitments include being an avid animal rights activist, starting her own business, to practicing her black belt in the art of Ninjutsu.

“I have my own photography business,” Schuler said. “Also, in my spare time, I love to do my martial arts training. That’s something that, right now, I only get to do really very sporadically, [and] it used to be a weekly thing for me.”

Schuler said she was raised as a busy person, so it’s only natural for her to want to take on several commitments. She said her current time commitments fill her schedule with activities from dawn to dusk.

“[Monday through Friday,] I wake up at five a.m.,” Schuler said. “I’m usually home around ten. On Friday nights [I get home] a lot later because of [football] games, so sometimes I won’t get home until midnight. On weekends, I still have to get up early because I have football injury checks in the morning. I usually have games and tournaments on the weekends [at which I have to work,] so I might get up at six a.m. on Saturdays, and I won’t get home till 8:30 or 9 p.m.”

With everything she does, Schuler said that she can get stressed out, but sleep and organization are major factors in the way she handles it.

“[T]he way I deal with [stress] is really through yoga and meditation, because even if I don’t get enough sleep, …I meditate,” Schuler said. “If I lost [my iPhone calendar,] I would show up to the wrong place wearing the wrong work shirt or something, so I have to be really organized.”

Schuler said that even sleep and organization aren’t enough to keep her relaxed all the time, and when she gets really stressed, she tries to change her perceptions.

“If you just…get perspective on a situation, [you] realize that stressing does you no good,” Schuler said. “It’s not going to fix the situation and it really just takes you further away from any sort of resolution or any productive work towards whatever needs to be done.”

Senior Chloe Crites, who is in Schuler’s Mind and Body Wellness class, said that Schuler has taught her to look at her commitments with a fresh perspective when she gets stressed.

“I think it’s crazy [that Schuler has so many jobs],” Crites said. “I can’t imagine her schedule, because I get stressed and I just have one job. But [by being in her class,] I’ve learned from her that [when I get stressed, it helps] to know everything has a purpose and if I focus on one thing at a time it isn’t so bad. She teaches us to always take a break for yourself, because that helps you focus.”

Schuler said she isn’t perfect and she knows of a healthier lifestyle than she is living now.
“I used to wake up earlier to come in [to the school] and work out,” Schuler said. “But I just wasn’t getting enough sleep, and as much as I preach a healthy lifestyle, I would say I’m not a good example of a healthy lifestyle right now.”
Even with her demanding schedule, Schuler said she aspires to do even more in the future.

“There’s so much I want to do,” Schuler said. “I love learning other languages [and traveling]. So [I want to do] more of that. I also really enjoy music, …so there [are] things I want to finish, and things I don’t have enough time for. I also want to spend more time with the people close to me.”

Teachers’ Secret Lives

____________________________________________________________________

Now, it’s easy to look at that article and see the Freudian slips. Actually they are quite obvious and funny if you think about it. The trick is in learning to read between the lines without the benefit of hindsight so you can avoid peril. If we can learn anything from articles like this one, it’s that whenever you listen to a public official of any kind, listen carefully to what they tell you and how they say it. Because you may save yourself a lot of headache if you listen to that little voice that goes off in the back of your head instead of ignoring it out of convenience.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

China and the Cincinnati Bengals: Being tough, winning and losing.

When you talk to just about anybody about sports they are quick to declare what their favorite team should do in order to win. “Get rid of T.O. He costs too much and is a pain in the ass!” Or, “get rid of Chad, he runs his mouth too much, he’s too expensive and they can’t even win with him.” I am refereeing to a couple of players for the Cincinnati Bengals, and I hear comments to that effect all the time.

But speak to those same people about how to deal with Social Security, or Education, or any number of social programs, and people clam up and refuse to commit an opinion. I suppose that’s because the game under which politics is played is just too complicated for many of them, or they are taking something out of the systems in question, and lack the courage to assert an opinion.

And that’s the beauty of sports. Sports allow people to become arm-chair coaches because they don’t have anything invested in the team other than committing to an occasional game or a sport jersey. So they can be objective as to the possible problems with the team they’re watching.

People like Doc Thompson, and myself, can be objective about social issues, because we aren’t expecting government to do anything for us. I wrote off Social Security a long time ago, along with all the other entitlements that are floating around out there. So I particularly enjoyed Doc’s show on January 18, 2011 where he laid it on the line as to what the real problems are. Listen to that here.

Hey, he’s not exaggerating. The issue truly is whether or not the United States will stay on top of the heap in world affairs. We won’t do it complaining about silly issues as to whether or not Native American bones are returned to their graves, or whether or not the entire Constitution can be read because of our internal guilt over slavery. The rest of the world is not hindered by that type of restrictive guilt, and we have to compete with them economically.

My team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not in the playoffs, but I am proud of how they played over the 2010 season. I watched how management approached the off-season last year and I believe they are on the march to winning ways going forward. But the team in my home town, the Cincinnati Bengals continue to be a bad team no matter how much money they spend.

Now you can go to any sports bar in America and even a drunken fool could tell you why the Bengals can’t win. And the same holds true for our county. Everybody knows how to fix the problems. But we won’t win if we don’t toughen up. It’s that simple.

What Doc talks about in that clip is a perfectly articulated synopsis of our counties problem. It sounds easy to hear him say it, but he has the luxury of seeing things clearly, because he doesn’t want anything from government. People like Thompson rely on themselves first to do most things, so the problems are easy to see.

So America, you better get tough quick. Because being tough is how you win.

Rich Hoffman
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Why The Bengals are a Terrible Team

Lately I was having dinner with a man who was very impressed with himself, and he spent a lot of time showing off the items that he had amassed through his successful career endeavors to his dinner guests.

When I talk with such people I don’t have the heart to tell them that the reason they are well compensated in the way they are is to placate them from thinking outside the box, and to settle in their lives. The compensation is to purchase their very soul from the curiosity of personal growth and invention. So I often feel pity for such types, because down the bumpy roads of life, somewhere way down there at the end of that road will come the realization that they short-changed themselves and lived an otherwise eventless life of little fulfillment.

And while I politely placated the man’s proud achievements with my attention, my thoughts fell on the Cincinnati Bengals, because there were elements of this man’s character that I believe are extraordinarily similar to Mike Brown, the owner of the Bengals.

The similarity comes from the popular belief that just because someone may have success in the legal profession, as Brown has, or finance, as this man has, or in some other endeavor, the game of football requires the ability to think outside the box to have leverage over your opposition, and therefore requires that type of thinker to have success.

As this man showed me the features of his new car, my thoughts lingered on a Bengal game recently that told the whole story.

An arctic front had brought temperatures hovering in the teens to Paul Brown Stadium, a palace that is operating in tremendous dept, currently projected at nearly $700 million dollars by the year 2032. For the moment, the burden the palace has placed on the city of Cincinnati is forgotten because it’s the fourth quarter with just seconds to play, and the Bengals are beating the far superior team of the New Orleans Saints and the crowd is gripping their seats in ecstatic disbelief and hope.

But the Saints drive down the field and are in scoring position. Kick the field goal and the tie. Go for it on 4th down, and the Saints get a 1st and goal.

In an ultimate act of disrespect, the Saints go for it. They line up and Drew Brees does his hard count, and everyone’s fears in the world of Bengal Football were confirmed. The Bengals defense jumps offside’s. The penalty gives the Saints a first down.

The Bengals lose…………………………again.

The Bengals are a terrible franchise. They have had only a few winning years in the last 20 years, since Mike Brown took over the franchise from his deceased father. The first thing Mike did was fire Sam Wyche, a fiery, motivated coach that always had a chance to win. I loved Sam Wyche because he thought outside the box all the time. He always was competitive and it was fun to watch his teams play on the field. He went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneer organization and my loyalty followed him there.

The Bengals have been a terrible franchise since. In fact, as Marvin Lewis completes his contract at the end of the 2010 season, he is the fourth head coach since Wyche left, and none of the coaches have been able to take the Bengals consistently to a playoff game, let alone a Superbowl.

• Paul Brown (1968–1975)
• Bill “Tiger” Johnson (1976–1978)
• Homer Rice (1978–1979)
• Forrest Gregg (1980–1983)
• Sam Wyche (1984–1991)
• Dave Shula (1992–1996)
• Bruce Coslet (1996–2000)
• Dick LeBeau (2000–2002)
• Marvin Lewis (2003–present)

Rebuilding years are expected. For instance, the time between Forrest Gregg’s Superbowl appearance and Sam Wayche’s was five years, something at the time the Bengal fans thought was unacceptable. Nobody would have fathomed at the close of the 80’s that the Bengals would become a complete joke among professional sports circles and fans by the far off-year of 2010, and yet another head coach would be dismissed at the end of the season and another rudderless recruiting process would take place for another head coach.

So why are the Bengals so bad? They’ve had plenty of first round draft picks. Here’s just a couple.

David Pollack, 2005
Chris Perry, 2004
Peter Warrick, 2000
Akili Smith, 1999
Ki Jana Carter, 1995
Dan Wilkinson, 1994
David Klingler, 1992

Not to mention Carson Palmer, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, all in the 2010 season were they had only won three games prior to Christmas.

Well, the organization is bad from the top and all that runs down hill. Evidence of that starts with the emblem, which is just a simple “B.”

If it was my team, and I had a tiger for a mascot name, I’d capitalize on that, but not the Bengals.

I was at another person’s home just the other day, and I saw a grill in the back of his townhouse, and I saw that he had a Bengal grill cover, and that “B”was on it. I felt sorry for the poor man. What a sap. He must be a real sucker to actually go out and buy that cover to support such a constantly bad team.

That’s what I thought. What a wonderful marketing strategy the Bengals have.  That stupid “B” is the most lazy emblem I can think of for an multi-million dollar franchise. 

It’s one thing to support your favorite team, win-lose or draw. But the Bengals just make fools out of their fans, because they do not offer a product on the field that can actually win.

The Bengals under Mike Brown make emotional decisions based on arrogance and a belief that the answers are inside the box, within the rules of society. Their ego’s get in the way of understanding what it means to win. They hire “yes” man coaches, and insist on top down management. They have no recruiting and believe that money can buy them a good team.

The Bengals spent the money on Terrell Owens for the 2010 season without considering the impact Terrell might have on Palmer. The Bengals have three charismatic players that have their own TV shows, and two of those guys are their star receivers. Didn’t anybody in the Bengal organization think that there might be some chemistry problems on the field?

No. Nobody even addressed it, because they don’t have any real scouting and have very limited understanding of the value of leadership. The Bengals could have spent less money on someone like Terrell Owens and instead spent the money on scouting and brought in some really good, fundamental players that fit in the schemes of Palmer.

But no, the people who run the Bengal organization are the classic thinkers that material wealth can purchase leadership and victory. And they are noticeably confounded when all their effort only produces losses.

The way the Bengals could win would be to change their uniforms, and kick-start a change in culture. They need to hire a new coach that can run the whole show, someone like Jon Gruden. And they need a General Manager to allow the coach to worry about only coaching and promoting the team through the media.

But the Bengals won’t do any of that. They’ll cling to their old ways and think they can buy a championship because money buys everything else in life.

However, in football, money does not always buy you victory. Ask Jerry Jones and his Dallas Cowboy problems. It takes heart and a desire to overpower and destroy your opponent.

The Bengals don’t inspire that kind of mentality with that stupid “B.” An emblem like that belongs on the chest of a high school cheerleader. Not the face of a great American city like Cincinnati.

I finished listening to the man flaunt his worldly possession like a small child displaying his boy scout merit badges, and my first instinct was to pat him on the head and say, “good boy.” But I didn’t, because somewhere in Mike Browns past, somebody placated his ego in a way that put this curse on Cincinnati called the Cincinnati Bengals. So all I did was sip my wine and go back in the house letting the guy revel in his temporary victories, and I didn’t want to ruin his Christmas with my piercing conviction that he was as clueless as Mike Brown.

The rest of the men stayed outside and continued to discuss sports stats and who had what, or what the next item they’d purchase would be. The sport stats were humorous as though they mattered and had an over-all impact on the ability to achieve victory. There are better things to think about, rather than the time that Mike Brown threatened to leave the city if Cincinnati did not build a new stadium for the team. An inept city government put themselves in debt to build the palace, and now the city is stuck with a huge bill and a terrible team to play in it. The Bengals are a lost cause and not worth the speech.

Rich Hoffman

http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
www.overmanwarrior.com

Throwback Game at Tampa Bay: Always a great show!

One thing you can always count on at Raymond James Stadium, is the Glazer Family will put everything they can into a Buccaneer game.  And that’s what happened at the recent throwback game against the Falcons.

The uniforms were fun to look at.  I am always impressed with the way they arrange the stadium during events like this.  And the most notable improvements is with the cheerleaders.  Their outfits are always well done and fashionable.   

First class. 

Too bad in Cincinnati, the Bengal organization doesn’t understand the role football plays in a city. 

That’s why the Buccaneers are playing for a wild  card spot just one year after completely reorganizing their team, and the Bengals can’t win if they tried.  It all starts in the front office.  Just like everything in life. 

Leadership is contagious, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneer organization has leadership at every single position from the office to the position players.  And it shows in the end result. 

They may not win every time, but they’re always fun to watch. 

Rich Hoffman

http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior

www.overmanwarrior.com