Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Double Standards in the Media



I’m sitting here reading this story about a Black female exotic dancer who was gang raped. Now this rape didn’t occur in some seedy motel by a bunch of clients she picked up on the street or something, it occurred at Duke University. No that wasn’t a typo, I said Duke University. This violent act was perpetrated by members of the Duke lacrosse team. To be exact, the incident occurred at a house right outside of the university grounds which is rented by the captains on the lacrosse team. But the actual location of the house shouldn’t matter here. Now these gentlemen (and I use that term very loosely) decided that wanted to have a little bit of fun one night about two weeks ago. They hired two ladies for some nighttime entertainment. The two ladies who arrived to show them a good time happened to be Black. They arrived at the house thinking that they were performing for 5 guys and all of a sudden mayhem breaks out where dozens of players were present. These ladies were accosted by these cowards. They were met with racial slurs and physically harmed.

One of the young ladies was held down, beaten, choked, raped and sodomized. The police reports say that in the house they found her fingernails, her make-up bag and her cellphone. This is certainly the customary items a woman leaves behind after entertaining a group of athletes right? It’s typical for a white guy to holler out "Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt" while getting a lapdance from a Black woman right? Of course it isn’t. Now it seems to me that this story should be all over the news. I mean, when a Black athlete gets caught speeding on the freeway on the way home from the club we hear about it first thing on ESPN right? Let’s see, I think we could talk about the small discretions of Black athletes that make the headlines or the front pages of the newspaper quite often. Let’s just imagine that this assault took place at a predominately Black university and the victims were white, this would’ve been front page national news. We’d be inundated with stories from Dateline, 60 Minutes or Primetime with exclusives as to how and when this incident occurred. They’d be interviewing the neighbors in the community talking about how outraged they are. It seems to me that this story has remained local to the North Carolina area. Their media is covering the story completely, but what about the rest of the nation. You can’t tell me that this isn’t newsworthy. It sure is newsworthy to African-Americans.

Okay, so this young lady was an exotic dancer, did she deserve to be raped? She is a student at North Carolina Central University, has two children and is trying to provide for them and pay for school. It may not what you consider the greatest way to pay the bills, but that’s not the issue here. I don’t know whether I’m more outraged about the incident itself or the lack of coverage in the media. This was a sick and disgusting act committed by members of Duke’s lacrosse team and it’s 5th page news. Seems kind of ironic that I go to the Duke University website and click the link for their lacrosse team -Duke Lacrosse Team and the roster and photos have been deleted. Coincidence??? I think not. The student athletes have not been cooperative with the police and the university punished them by forfeiting games. Hmmm… that sounds like a suitable punishment don’t you think? These guys should be arrested immediately for not stopping the brutal attack. Justice needs to be swift and severe in this case.

I've included links to the story from The News & Observer. This newspaper serves the cities of Raleigh, Durham, Cary & Chapel Hill in the state of North Carolina.

-Dancer gives details of ordeal
-Team's silence is sickening
-DNA tests ordered for Duke athletes
-Rally calls for action at Duke
-Lacrosse team forfeits games
-15 players had prior charges

Thursday, March 23, 2006

March Madness

Aiiight, we're down to the Sweet Sixteen and the 4 teams I picked to make it to the Final Four are all still alive. Those teams would be Duke, UCLA, Boston College and UCONN. Now of course you've gotta know that I've got money on this. Hell, I'm in 4 separate pools. Two of them are for big money though. When I say big money I'm talkin' bout over $2000. One pool is around $3800 and the other is close to $2500. Looking at the current standings right now in both of those brackets, I still have a shot at taking home some cash. The chance of me getting the grand prize is almost impossible, but if the results from the games tonight and the rest of the weekend go my way, then I'll still have a shot.

Last year I came in 3rd place and won enough loot to pay my car insurance, my Verizon cell phone bill and cop a pair of Jordans. I could use another bonus offering like that this year as well. Last year I was dead on with Carolina and Illinois in the final and I had the Tarheels taking home the title. This year I've got UCONN and UCLA in the final, with UCONN taking home the trophy. All of my brackets are the same. I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out "ifs" "ands" or "buts" with regards to match-ups and games. I grab the sheets, make my picks and that's it. There have been a number of surprises this tournament including George Mason and Georgetown. Now I had to talk about these teams because I didn't have faith in either one of them. I had GM going home Friday night to Michigan St. and GT going home Sunday to Ohio St. Yes, I was wrong. So now I've gotta root for the home teams. Then again, I was cheering for them all along. I just didn't think that they were going to advance to the Sweet 16 when it came down to my money.

Anyway, from tonight through Sunday evening I'm gonna kick my feet up, grab a drink and some snacks and watch some basketball. I could if I really wanted to get some tickets for the regional games here at Verizon Center. But I'm not in the hustlin' mood for some reason. I just feel like relaxin'. I don't feel like being outside tryna scalp... ooooops, I mean sell tickets. I've got hook-ups and they'll take care of me for tickets. But it's unseasonably cold in the D.C. area right now and I just wanna lay in bed and chill.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Oh No... Not T.O.!!!!!



Maaaaaan... I'm disgusted right now as thousands of Cowboys fans should be. I just finished watching the press conference where Jerry Jones announced that my squad has signed Terrell Owens. Now, everyone knows how talented the brotha is on the field. It's just the off the field stuff that could give any normal person a migraine. We've seen this act in San Francisco and over the two seasons that he spend with the Philadelphia Eagles. This guy is the wife beater who keeps getting married again. His first marriage was with the 49ers and although tumultuous at times, it wasn't extremely bad. However that marriage ended in divorce. From there he went on to what looked like the best situation possible in Philly. Jeffrey Lurie and Andy Reid figured that they could rehabilitate the Ike Turner tendencies in Terrible, ooops I mean Terrell. Things went very well the first season as the Eagles made the Super Bowl with T.O.'s help. However it was after the Super Bowl ended when the domestic violence began. T.O. began jabbing McNabb and the organization and from that point it only escalated. The small punches in the shoulder turned to black eyes which turned to broken bones. In the middle of second marriage, the Eagles filed for separation and a protection order. Owens and his best man Drew Rosenhaus challenged the protection order, however the judge upheld the original stay away order. So, as in everyday separations, each side had their story. However it didn't much matter. The Eagles completed the divorce process earlier this week.

So here comes Jerry Jones the owner of America's Team. He's in dire need of a groom for his struggling bride. He see's T.O. and knows just how well he performs, yet he's well aware of the domestic violence issues in his past. He throws caution to the wind and decides to present Terrell with the perfect engagement ring, a nice fat new contract. Terrell is no fool, he takes the ring with the bright smile of a million dollar karat ring. The best man Rosenhaus just sat back cheezin' like he's supposed to. Right now I'm sick. I'm pissed off. I'm angry. This dude is the epitome of selfish. I'm not talking just about T.O., I'm talking about Jerry Jones. They do both deserve each other. Maybe it will be a marriage made in heaven. But right now I'm not tryna be a member of the wedding party. I don't want this clown on my team. he disgraced The Star. All I see is that chump running out to the center of the field and George Teague poppin' his azz. I'll watch that clip over and over and over again.

I had to look no further than the comments posted on the website of the Dallas News to verify that I'm far from alone in my thinking. Cowboys fans are angry!!!!

See results from the T.O. Survey

See images from September 24th, 2000. That was the day that T.O. acted like a jackazz and got popped by George Teague. Also, listen to Teague's account of what happened that day.

Terrell Owens - Tarnishing The Star

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

SPLASH!!!!!!



-Highlights from the game

That was the sound of Paul Pierce draining a last second basket for my Celtics squad against the Wizards tonight. I can't even front, I had the time of my life tonight. As a Celtics fan I love being at games where I'm treated as the enemy. In fact, I revel in it! People in the stands spent the entire game talking trash to me and you betta believe that I taunted right back. I had to sit through all the nonsense from Wizards fans, but I was laughing thr whole time. I knew my boys were gonna pull the game out. Boston led for the majority of the first half, then the Wizards took control in the 3rd quarter. But my crew woek-up in the 4th quarter and made it a game. They ended up going into overtime and that's when ere'thing really got good. Gilbert Arenas was ballin' outta control. It didn't matter who was guarding him, he kept scoring. So after baskets were traded between Paul Pierce hittin' a three pointer and Gil coming back at Paul with a fadeaway jumper, it left 14 seconds on the clock for magic to occur. The Wiz were up 115-114 and everybody in the place knew who was gonna get the ball for the Celts... Paul Pierce. He got the ball after the entry pass was made and he dribbled at the top of the circle. The clock wound down, my heart started beating through my chest. he drove to the left side of the court where he was boxed in by two Wizards defenders. The time showed less than 3 seconds. Double P elevated, squared up and let the ball loose...... SPLASH!!!!!! All net baby!!!!! I jumped over the row of seats and jumped up and down on the two chairs in front of me like a big kid. I was hollering and what not while the whole Verizon Center looked stunned. It was unbelieveable. I'm sitting here now watching myself on ESPN Sportcenter jumping up and down like a fool. Yes, it was me. I was sitting three rows behind the Wizards bench. Trust me, no one else was gonna be jumping up and down like that with a Celtics victory. Awwwww maaaaan... this is crazy. I'm wide awake and not sure when I'm goin to sleep.



Leading scorers
Boston: Paul Pierce 31, Ryan Gomes 27, Wally Szczerbiak 23
Washington: Gilbert Arenas 39, Antawn Jamison 25, Caron Butler 23

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of both the Wizards and the Celtics. I was born and raised in the DC area and loved the Bullets(they need to change the name back). My grandparents lived in Roxbury, MA and I became a Celtics fan watching Tiny Archibald, Cornbread Maxwell, Bird, McHale & Parish. Anyway, whenever my two favorite teams go head-to-head... it's all about Boston baby!!!

My pics from the game