Chico de Oro....Kurt Warner.

Pittsburgh won, but, most importantly, Kurt Warner proved he's a baller. Not only did he quarterback one hell of a game, he also was the only person in football to receive the "NFL Man of the Year" Award before the game.

Set aside the fluke pick and miraculous runback at the end of the half, that was bonehead. And forget about the fumble late in the game, it was miracle he was actually making people think, there for a moment, that this game STILL was not over. Ageless wonder? Yep. Possible Hall of Fame quarterback? Yep. It is possible, fellas.

Was that the greatest Super Bowl ever? I wouldn't know because I was watching it on Yahoo's game channel in the only place in the Ophir house we could get a wireless internet connection, which might as well have been behind the fridge and under two blankets. So, technically, I wasn't even watching. I was eating canned chili and fritos and staring at a friend who wouldn't stop shooting his bebe gun at a string of empty beer cans.

If it wasn't for Kurt Warner playing in this one, I would have forgotten it was Super Bowl Sunday. That's how out of touch I am. Turns out, I probably missed the greatest Super Bowl ever played.

But could it really have beaten Patriots over Rams? Is Kurt Warner magical? Does everything he touch turn to gold?

Or am I just being obsessive about an old fart who's just about washed up?

A lesson in Manhood

Nobody seemed to really dig on my Ryan Willen swine, did they? Cheap shot? Or the truth? With Ryan Willen, last year, Notre Dame was a better team. This year, without Ryan Willen, they are not. That's the truth.

Now the difference between the truth and a cheap shot? Well, an anonymous poster saying that I suck constitutes a cheap shot. Are we all clear on the two definitions?

Hm, the truth hurts sometimes. I understand your pain. Next year will I write that ND was better, post Michael Porter? Sure. If you'd like.

Find another team? Do you want me to start cheering for KU? What the hell? Bad play calling is bad play calling, there's no way around it. Fourth and one is no time to run a shotgun play and turn one yard into 8. Every once in a while, you know, to throw defenses off, that's fine with me. BUT EVERY SINGLE TIME? Bob Stoops laughs his ass off anytime he's playing Mizzou and they turn a third or fourth and short into a third or fourth and long. Seriously. I'll bet he laughs inside. I bet a bunch of coaches do. You guys keep talking about MU being an elite program, 30 wins in 3 years? There's teams all over the country that have done that. Mizzou can't win big games. They never have. Oklahoma makes them look like a bunch of whipped city boys in Sears buying their girlfriends' $50 panties. Year after year. After year. They're not elite. They're good. They win some ballgames. However, the coaching staff doesn't get them ready to play the big boys. And you have to beat the big boys, fellas.

And my blogs don't suck near as much as Christenson' play calling does. There's truth to that.

Grow up and be a man? How about some of you start taking a little responsibility of your own and signing your names on your posts. Until then, I don't see any room in the trash talking business for any of you. In the world of shit-talk, there are rules. Number one: You're not allowed to cower behind an anonymous name and bash someone from the comfort of your cubicle.

That's pretty much the only rule, but that IS a rule. I like reading all your post, but please don't make me put an "anonymous" block on the blog. That seems foolish to have to do. You are all adults right? My name is David Unterreiner. Next to my blog there's a briefing about me. You know who I am. You know where I'm from. You know where I live. And I don't even know your name. But yet, you tell me that I suck. That's balls.

It's good to see some Cape Central fans on the site. I could be wrong, but it seems they've come few and far between in the past. We're happy to have you. I miss the old ND-Cape Central rivalry. A little less talk back then, and a lot more action. Playing ball against those Cape boys was more fun than just about anything back then. A few of these current local rivalries could take a tip from that one. Damn right we didn't like each other. The players didn't like the players, the fans didn't like the fans, and the schools didn't like the schools. But you know what, nobody got on the Internet every single day behind an anonymous name and started bashing each other. Everything was bottled up and released on game day. The fans cheered hard, the players played hard, and everybody was trash talking everybody else. And then it was over. The game was over, the hard feelings were over. And we waited until next time.

Alright. Give it to me.

Shit-talkin' never gets old

There's nothing like an angry Reddog from Sikeston to get me out of the woods and back to the computer. I figured somebody would start talking some shit sooner or later about me never writing, but I didn't assume it would be trash talk in regards to Sikeston and Notre Dame. I should've figured.

When Mark called and told me I had a post after two idle months I was a bit surprised. But it's good to know at least one guy out there still, for one reason or another, remembers me as a trash-talking blogger. I'm not sure where that reputation came from, but I guess I'll take it.

Cheers to Sikeston for puttin' a whoopin' on Notre Dame twice thus far this season. Perhaps the tide has changed. Sikeston seems to be the better team, post-Ryan Willen. I have no qualms about admitting that, in case homeboy thought I was going to try to defend Notre Dame and make sappy excuses about why the blue couldn't hang with the red, which I've never done. It's cool, though.

Mark speaks the truth in his response; I've been away from a computer for a couple months now. I must say it's been fantastic. The only local sports updates that I've heard of are the ones I get when I talk to the family, and I haven't had any time to blog about. I've completely lost touch with St. Louis sports scene, and my lone exposure to traditional sports in the last two months was Mizzou's bowl game last weekend, which was nice. It was good to see the Tigers get a win. It's obvious that, defensively, they're about as good as 11 rocks in a bag. You could pull 11 homeless guys off the streets and tell them you'll feed them for one night if they play defense for your football team, and they would've made the Tigers look bad. There are some bright spots at the linebacker position, but for the most part they were downright pathetic.

I was also happy to hear Dave Christenson will be moving on to be the head coach at Wyoming. Some may miss the guy, but his completely ignorant play-calling and his fear of making smart play calls on short yardage situations will certainly not be missed by this man. Farewell Dave.

It was a pleasure getting to watch Chase Daniel play these last four years. I wish his senior campaign would've played out better for him, but you can't win 'em all. Here's to hoping that he goes on to a successful professional career.

Between the Blues, the Rams, and the Cardinals these days there just isn't all that much to talk about. The Cardinals' front office has done an impressive job of making the media and some of the people in St. Louis think they're making major improvements to their ballclub. But that's a hoax. Kahlil Greene sucks. And Trever Miller isn't much to talk about either. The truth is simple: The front office needs to go out and sign or trade for an impact player.

I'm a complete advocate of using the farm system to its fullest capabilities and bringing up young talent through your organization, but the truth is that young players need quality, proven, talented veterans to learn from. These middle line guys that the Cardinals have been signing for the last five years now, who are kind of good but not really all that good ballplayers, just aren't going to cut it anymore. Go out and get another big bat or another ace starter and lets win some damn ballgames.

Alright. I'm outta here. It was fun writing again. Happy New Year.

What are Sports?

It's been a while. The Phillies have won the series. Mizzou proved, once again, that they don't know how to prepare to play against a legitimate national title contendor. The NBA started. The NHL started. And the Rams won a game. All of this since the last time I've seen a computer. Scanning the last month's worth of stories from the St. Louis sport's web pages has been like sitting down to a tree full of wiffleballs on Christmas morning. Surprising, but pleasant.

*Who would've thought firing a football coach could cause such a drastic change in performance? Count me on the side that did. Bottom line is that Scott Linehan just couldn't get the job done. I wouldn't expect to see him on the sidelines as a head coach again...at any level.

*I was starting to give in to all of you Pinkel lovers. I was really starting to come around. He was proving to me that he could head up a load of talent on the turf and field a title contendor. And then Mizzou had two huge games in a row, and came out flatter than Kansas. Most people blame that on the coach.

*Philadelphia? Tampa? Who really cared?

*Carp is coming back and the Birds are going to sign Manny. Write it down.

I'm outty.

Smoot Reigns Supreme

If you haven't checked out JBar's blog, "Watch Chris Cooley's Draft," then you should. It's hilarious. It's priceless watching Redskin players hating on Marion Barber and Reggie Bush. Sex boat party pioneer Freddy Smoot reigns classic comments, picking "Steve 'I'll beat you up' Smith", then he claims he doesn't even need Jon Kitna because he's got Tommy Brady...oops. He tells Jason Campbell's girlfriend she's going to regret picking Reggie Bush, then goes on to say Matt Ryan ain't nothing but a "pair of shoes." When Colt Brennan picks Lendale White, Chris Cooley claims it's a "gay pick," then he proceeds to say, "I'm not real happy with my options right now" immediately before he picks Campbell, his own quarterback.

Plus, there's dumb hot chicks in the video. And, apparently, after seeing the fetish we have with Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, etc, etc, etc, Americans love watching dumb hot chicks.

So...check it out.

Plus, he's better than you at fantasy football. So take his advice.

No Fun League set to Snap

How weird is it to see a different quarterback wearing a Green Bay helmet? To me, it looks like Aaron Rodgers has no business in that color. Nonetheless, I'm rooting hard for him and I hope he does well. If anybody deserves a shot in this league, it's him. Not to many highly touted NFL players sit still for four years without making a peep. I think that says a lot about what kind of guy he is. Here's hoping Rodgers tears it up this year, and brings Green Bay back to the playoffs.

I was watching the pregame show on FOX and saw Keyshawn Johnson there. I got to thinking about the old man and I decided there has never been a player that has had so much success just from talking himself up. "Key" was a decent baller for a couple years but he was never as good as he made himself up to be. These days he's landed a gig on a pregame show where millions of people take his opinion about the sport seriously, all the while believing he was one of the game's best receivers. He ranks nowhere near the top of the game's best receivers and he said absolutely nothing smart on the pregame show. In fact, in the few minutes I listened to him, twice he stated, "I'll keep this short, I agree with Coach Dikta." Wow. Inspiring.

Along the bottom line, I noticed that they are now making fantasy "projections" for players. For example, Drew Brees is "projected" to throw for 312 yards, two touchdowns and one interception against the Bucs today, according to Fox. Really? I wonder who the brain behind this is, and I'd like to meet the complete idiots that actually pay attention to that stuff. We can't predict the future, folks. Neither can Fox.

I'm glad young Matthew Leinart gets the pine to start the season. Maybe this will help him come to the realization that he's not that special. Kurt Warner was in his prime six years ago and he took advantage of it. Leinart should take this opportunity to watch and learn from Kurt. He should be buying Warner dinner and asking for secrets. This is an embarrassment for Leinart, who only three years ago was seemingly immortal. I hope the playboy learns his lesson.

Any guesses as to how the J.T. O'Sullivan and Mike Martz era is going to turn out?

There was a time when I thought Chad Johnson was a great thing for the NFL. He was a great receiver with a clever attitude. He had fun, but it was a good fun. It was fun for the fans, fun for the players, fun for the media. He wasn't like the Randy Moss and the Terrell Owens of old, making headlines for being ignorant and ornery. He was making headlines because he was simply enjoying the game of football. But I've lost all hope and all respect for the guy. Why can't making millions and millions of dollars, being one of the most known people in professional sports, and playing the game you love be enough? I'm over Chad, I hope he disappears. I wish he would've kept his promise and went and played in the Arena league, or Canada, or somewhere else. Somewhere where the media could give a rats ass about what his name is. You know you're a troubled soul when being Chad Johnson, future Hall of Fame wide reciever, isn't enough attention for you. He needs counseling, and a good ass kicking.

We should hire Ditka to do the deed.

Dear Miles, Swallow your...words?

Now that the Old Indians are up I-70 and sitting underneath 60,000 people in the locker rooms of Faurot, I'm wondering if that bold prediction by Miles Edwards is starting to sit uncomfortably in his stomach. I would guess that his words are probably turning into loose stool somewhere down near his colon. But maybe I'm wrong, I guess. Maybe some of these SEMO boys are on to something, maybe they know something we don't know. Maybe MU is slightly worse than Southwest Baptist, and SEMO can pull this one out as well.

But, I doubt it. And not even anonymous' boy Dave Christensen turning fourth and ones into fourth and nines are going to save SEMO. This one is going to be sloppy, I don't care who's playing and who's not playing. The difference is simply size and speed.

The most interesting storyline with this entire scene is that the great people of Missouri have to either travel to their local Buffalo Wild Wings or pay Pay-Per-View$29.99 to see the contest. I'll spare the local television stations an ass chewing because I'm assuming there's a legal process involved that is prohibiting them from carrying the game. If that is so, then shame on the legal process. When a state has their Big 12 team amongst the nation's top ten football teams, they should be televised locally every single game. Somebody is at fault here. Although the game isn't going to be that great of game to watch, it's still a big deal. It's an event. SEMO and the black and gold are meeting for only the second time in history. Since Fox Sports Net is acting like a greedy, money loving big business, KFVS12 should have stepped in and fought 'till their last breathe to bring this game to the people of Cape Girardeau.

It's a crying shame. I come all the way home, and I can't even watch Missouri play Southeast Missouri. Pitiful. And obnoxious.

Hate to break it to you, Miles, but you're going to look like an idiot on this one. Go Tigers.