Sunday, September 23, 2007

Another Bad Medical Metaphor

A false positive is a result that is erroneously positive when the situation is normal. Although it probably means you had a lot of fun along the way, you still don’t want to receive a false positive for AIDS, gonorrhea, chlamydia, or your football team.

I had a lot of fun rooting for the Giants today, but perhaps I shouldn’t get my hopes up. In fact, I might have been better off rooting for Eli Manning to fail miserably, so that the Giants have reason to give up on him for good.

Though the Giants pulled it out, this was partly the result of a bad Manning pass that Plaxico Burress made a good reaction on. This isn’t unusual: a lot of Manning’s completions are barely that—balls that are a little too high, a little behind, thrown with a little too much touch. If they get hauled in or dragged down, it’s usually because of a good play by the receiver. A false positive for Manning. And he still threw two ugly interceptions. That’s the normal situation.

37 comments:

T.J. said...

I just learned that the king of the pep talk, Lou Holtz, will be a keynote speaker at our annual convention. As a guy who has been thoroughly entertained by Lou's asinine segments on the first four weeks of Gameday, I am psyched to see him babble incoherently in person.

Michael Jack said...

Cubs up 3.5 games on Brewers.

Cubs schedule next 6 games: 3 games at Florida, 3 games at Cincy

Brewers next 7 games: 3 games at St Louis, 4 games home against San Diego.

This looks...interesting...

T.J. said...

The Brewers are screwed.

Dennis said...

Eyes black and blue, and my lunch money gone. This is my life on Monday morning.

T.J. said...

Skins loss, or Michael Jack taking it to you on the links?

Dennis said...

Yes.

T.J. said...

Sucka.

Greg said...

Red Buttons standing by....

Jerry said...

2005 called. They want their Manning analysis back. The 2007 version of Eli has put the ball right on the money as frequently as any other QB in the league, with the possible exception of Brady (I've only watched a fraction of his plays because their games are non-competitive).

T.J. said...

Red Foxx standing by...

Mark said...

Simply Red standing by...

Geoff said...

Red Rover? Red Grange?

T.J. said...

Helen Reddy standing by...

Jerry said...

Red McCombs?

In real life, I'd save this for the dagger, but....Red Barrenson?

T.J. said...

Despite the best efforts from the Nationals bullpen, the Teddy Roosevelt mascot finished his RFK Stadium career without a victory in the presidents race. Nationals relief pitchers held back Thomas Jefferson, who famously fell twice during a race last season while the Phillies were in town, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but to no avail. Roosevelt never showed. He was in the new ballpark across town, which opens next season. Roosevelt went 0 for 83 this season and 0 for 120 in his career.

Greg said...

Red Skelton standing by...


Speaking of Red McCombs, I was in Austin this weekend for the UT-Rice game. Some observations

1. Lots of cougars of a nice vintage walking around Austin. The after-market accessories give their appearance a real boost.

2. Burnt Orange is kind of a weird color but when the entire stadium is wearing it, it looks pretty cool. "Burnt-Oranging" out the stadium was started when Mack Brown took over the program.

3. Rice didn't have a chance and the two Rice fans I saw knew it.

4. Like most large universities, UT has a "University Club Room" in the stadium where you can get cocktails and enjoy the air-conditioning and scenery. It's fantastic.

5. UT fans can get loud in the stadium, but not as loud as the Swamp.

6. Here is what most UT fans hate:
a) Oklahoma
b) The Florida teams
c) The SEC
d) The fact that Texas A&M claims to be a "rival" to UT
e) The overrated-ness of the Big 10

7. Overall, Texans are fairly drunk and loud, so I fit right in.

T.J. said...

Greg, did you perhaps assist some cougars in removing said Burnt Orange apparel?

Mark said...

While those "university clubs" are indeed very cool. They always strike me (at least at UF and FSU) as more of a place to be seen and network than a place to watch a football game and cheer on the home team. For that reason, I don't care to do much more than grab a free halftime drink there.

Mark said...

Why do Texas fans hate Florida teams? Because Florida (as a state) is superior in the amount of football talent produced?

Austin's cougar population sounds similar to Dallas. Which is a very good thing.

Greg said...

The university clubs are more of a "social" thing to see/be seen in or for gold-diggers to try to find husbands in.

Also, when it's a hot day, you're in the third quarter and your team is just crushing one of the Rices of the world, it's nice to go inside for a few more drinks.

I think they are envious. While Texas produces a lot of high school talent, the big Florida schools seem to translate that into more success than the Texas schools. Also, the UCF experience and the rise of USF has them worried. UT is the only "national powerhouse" in the state of Texas; Florida has three of them (even though FSU & Miami are having down years).


One more thing that warrants mention: I'm a HUGE fan of chicks wearing the mini-skirt and cowboy boots. Oh man.

Mark said...

That makes two of us. Girls wearing boots and skirts in just about any way gets my approval.

Whitney said...

We'll let the members of our blogcircle from Texas counter this challenge from the Florida guys.

Oh, wait. This should be a compelling debate.

Whitney said...

Here's a very tricky sports trivia question: I was stumped on it after several pained minutes of thinking about it (witout using the Internet for the tiniest clue) and gave up after a couple of incorrect guesses.

Who won the Stanley Cup this year?

I need to tender my membership in the Sports Fans of the world. I am pathetic. But I gotta believe I'm not the only one whom this question might give at least a little pause to (3-TVed single guys excepted), and that says a lot.

Good luck.

T.J. said...

All right, I'm not cheating and using the interweb...and it's taking awhile...did that fake ass Disney team the Anaheim Mighty Ducks win it?

Mark said...

Yes sir.

T.J. said...

Nice...now back to my Family Guy Star Wars viewing on Youtube.

Greg said...

Sneakers O'Toole standing by.....

T.J. said...

James William Bottomtooth standing by...

T.J. said...

Nice 4th quarter for Mr. Brees last night...

Whitney said...

He lived up to his theme song...

Well now they call me the Brees
I keep blowin' down the road
Well now they call me the Brees
I keep blowin' down the road
I aint got me nobody
I dont carry me no load

T.J. said...

Don't laugh, but three weeks into the season, I'm pretty sure the AFC South is the toughest division in football. Didn't see that one coming.

Greg said...

And the weakest might be the NFC South...no unbeatens and two teams with zero wins.

Dennis said...

Just caught up on the comments here and noticed an eerily similar notion to that of one Joseph A. Sherman regarding the most athletes produced by a particular state....or per square mile per state. My money's still on Jersey.

Greg said...

The West Deptford Wonder's statement is based on population density. New Jersey is the most densley populated state in the country, so it would make sense that they have the most athletes per square mile....along with the most doctors, lawyers, etc.

But if you want to look at something tangible, like "Most High school All-Americans per capita" the winning state would be something obscure like Rhode Island or Hawaii. Or it might not even be a state at all, it might be a colonially protected non-state like American Samoa.

Jerry said...

I'd submit that Arlington County has the most douchebags per square mile. No offense to my Arlington comrades. Except Swint.

Whitney said...

I'm Jerry. I'm from Jersey, where everything was cool and the people were cool and were better athletes and they knew a ton more about sports and the newspaper was way better and the talk radio was way better and the bars were cooler and the chicks were hotter and cooler and went down easier and the food was way better and it wasn't so damn humid and the fan base was more loyal and the people weren't assholes and they were a lot smarter and guys didn't go get married to stupid girls I hate and people didn't drink that fancy beer and more people wore tank-tops and drove T-tops and were just way cooler all the time and everything was just better.

I'm Jerry.

Jerry said...

I'm Jerry. True

I'm from Jersey. True

where everything was cool. False

and the people were cool and were better athletes. Push

and they knew a ton more about sports. True

and the newspaper was way better. True

and the talk radio was way better. True

and the bars were cooler. False

and the chicks were hotter and cooler. False and True

and went down easier. True

and the food was way better. True

and it wasn't so damn humid. False

and the fan base was more loyal. Depends on the sport

and the people weren't assholes. False

and they were a lot smarter and guys didn't go get married to stupid girls I hate. False. False. False

and people didn't drink that fancy beer. True

and more people wore tank-tops and drove T-tops. True and true

and were just way cooler all the time and everything was just better. False and false.

I'm Jerry. True

3:37 PM, September 25, 200