It’s a bye week. You have things on your mind. Feel free to let it all out here. We won’t judge *snicker*. Go ahead and talk about whatever you want.
By the way, if you’re worried about black helicopters and whatnot, you don’t need to fill out a name or e-mail address or anything. I don’t know why WordPress asks for that stuff.
The Birddog 
You know how on Star Trek, doctors could heal hamstring injuries my using some ray thing over the back of a guy’s leg? Are we any closer to inventing that?
I’ll start: Which of the 13 games listed on the ’09 schedule is most likely to be dropped. I once understood that Ga. Southern would drop — is this still the consensus?
When will Phat resume posting on GoMids?
We can play 13 games next year because we play at Hawaii. You’re allowed to schedule an extra home game to pay for the trip to Honolulu. I used to think we’d replace Georgia Southern with someone else since Paul Johnson was gone, but I don’t know anymore.
Anyone hear Chet a couple weeks ago when he mentioned that we’re close to a deal for the 2011 DC Bowl?
Who is the next fast 230 LB fullback we see on the Navy horizon?
PHAT,
We need a new spirit video with cool music.
Hopefully there will be one for Notre Dame.
Army’s fullback got the BLACK DEATH AWARD.
http://www.goarmysports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=11100&ATCLID=1598000
lolwut
I should change the poll from “who was MVP?” to “WHO GETS THE SCURVY AWARD?”
So here’s a question… Is anyone else kind of sick of Feinstein?
I think you might be the only one! :) I think his opinion on the Navy-ND series is crap, but other than that, I think a writer of his stature giving Navy positive PR can only be a positive. I have met him at various alumni association stuff and he is always cordial and seems like a nice guy.
Not really, but his shtick does get old sometimes.
Mike,
I am sure that you are trying to make a name for yourself in this business. And, you are very good. However, it would make sense to have a guy like Feinstein on your side. The guy can write!!!!
If his opinion does not agree with yours, so what.
I wouldn’t exactly call blogging much of a business, and the odds that Feinstein reads this blog are about the same as the odds that magic hamstring healer gets invented during the bye week. I’m just shooting the breeze with Navy fans.
I found that my spirits lifted considerably on Saturday when the pregame show came on the radio and Feinstein wasn’t in the booth.
I sometimes like Feinstein, but I’m sick of hearing about Hudspeth. It was nine years ago, and it’s unlikely that some congressional committee is going to take up the issue. Let it go.
I will give him credit for laughing on the air about the “John Feinstein Drinking Game” I invented a couple years ago. But he didn’t exactly take the hint.
John Feinstein was on the Gomids site prior to the recent Duke game (or, some game – I saw him lurking). He did not post but I am sure he read what a lot of us wrote. The guy does his research.
Check with 86 to see if I am right.
The point is that you are both writers. He is very good and you are getting there. Keep working at it but do not isolate guys that could help you.
Just my two cents!!!
Just because a poster is called “John Feinstein,” that doesn’t mean it was him. Come on now.
One piece of the 430+ page bailout bill is congress bought out Eagle Bank, so we’re back to the congressional bowl. (lower case intentional) HA HA HA
Johnnie Mc was wearing his NAVY hat today on CNN.
On the topic of Feinstein, in his most recent article he suggested that Navy should have, at the very least, received a vote or two to be in the Top 25.
I am not sure whether or not I agree with him. While beating the #16 team in the country is certainly deserving of national attention, I imagine that most of those who vote on the polls are reserving judgment until after the Pitt and Notre Dame games.
Any thoughts out there?
Mike,
You are right. I do not know if it was him. Still, the guy can write and so can you.
I would not having him in my corner if I was you.
Jeff
JF great! Anyone who can “f-ing ref” on the air and come back can’t be all bad. But seriously, can we please recon Bob’s thesaurus? One does not “diagnose that play to perfection”; you “figure out that play”, or “not get fooled by that play”.
I don’t get the Feinstein criticisms. He’s an accomplished author. His book “A Civil War” covers the A-N rivalry with genuine affection. What other nationally recognized writer gives a hoot about any of the Army-Navy-Air Force rivalry? Kenny Chesney dissed all three- A, N, & AF- on ESPN last Saturday and not one- not even former Navy Asst. Coach, Lee Corso- stood up to him.
Kenny Chesney? The country music star?
Any word on Ram Vela? The VS announcers thought he had a stinger when he left the game but it was unsure.
Yes. Chesney was guest. Suppose because he’s from Tennessee.
I think Feinstein checks out this blog. After all, Scott distributes your words each week, and JF is no dummy, so I bet he wanders over from time to time. He is a great writer, and everyone’s schtick gets old from time to time.
Yes, I do wander and perhaps, “lurk”, at GoMids and the Bird-Dog from time to time! What can I say, I bleed Navy Blue and Gold!
Do you still have a copy of that drinking game? I believe that came around before my time.
John – is that you? It’s me, Dave! Dave Ramsey! I’m a writer, too! Colorado Springs Gazette! Check out my blog sometime! Maybe we can compare notes about how Paul Johnson is a master propagandist!
(PS – Hey Birddog – can you add my blog link to “other friends of the birddog”? I could use the hits! Thanks!!!)
BD – your invitation to speak to “things on your mind” has certainly produced some interesting comments. I may as well add mine to the mix. First – thanks for a great blog. As a football fan rather than a student, I’ve learned a lot from your posts and the resulting comments. Sometimes I’ve been taken back by what, on the surface appears to be negative criticism of the team. But I’ve come to realize that most of your contributors simply want our team to be the absolute best it can be and they hope their observations can, in some way, get them closer to that goal. As we look at this first year under Coach Niumatalolo we should remember that there were times when we questioned Coach Johnson’s sometime “strange” decisions, both with personnel and play calling. Some of his calls worked and some did not but over the years we came to realize that he tended to know what he was doing and there was a real method to his madness. I see the same thing happening with Coach N. We watch the team in action one day a week for four hours. He and his staff analize them all week. The results of the last three weeks is proof that Coach N has learned a lot at the foot of the master. I expect him to continue the pattern we’ve seen over the last six years. I hope he grows to love USNA to the point that he does not want to leave no matter who calls. But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong. BEAT ARMY! (for the service academy’s version of a baker’s dozen – 13 in a row)
Agreed…. 3 Ws over 3 good teams shows that Coach N and staff have there team prepared to win. You can tell the staff is working themselves and the team hard, have generated great motivation and confidence (I would say more so overall than last year under PJ), and are making this a fun season for the players and fans. Beat PITT!!!
I say yes to Feinstein. I always enjoy the radio broadcast more when he is present.
I think Coach N has done a great job and will continue to do so. I like to hear him say “no excuses” and “we are just going to go play football.” He and his staff clearly have the team motivated and I agree more so than last year.
That’s a good point, pipes. I never thought about the e-mail list. I still doubt it, but I guess you never know.
I suppose an explanation is on order. I know that Feinstein is pretty much the only national media personality that pays any consistent attention to the service academies anymore. So there’s definitely a “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” element here. But the fact that he’s the only voice is part of the problem. Feinstein, whether or not he wants to be considered as such (and I suspect he does), is the de facto national “expert” on the service academies. But the problem is that for a supposed expert, he has a fundamental misunderstanding of a lot of issues. It isn’t that he disagrees with me on various topics, it’s that he uses some really shaky reasoning in coming to his conclusions. He was wrong about Caleb Campbell, he was wrong about the whole “invite Air Force to the Poinsettia Bowl” nonsense, he was wrong about Navy playing Notre Dame, and he’s wrong again about Duke not standing around for the Navy alma mater. And he is terrible on the radio. Yes, we know you hate Duke (other than Krzyzewski), Notre Dame, and Perry Hudspeth, John. And I’m sure you recently had dinner with a player from the ’95 team too. We get it! Talk about something else! Something other than actual football, anyway, because you’re even worse when you talk during the game.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, so I don’t mind if you fire away. I don’t even like saying this too much, because I really enjoy his books. But his columns and radio work are just unbearable.
Not unpopular w/ me … I tend to feel the same way.
GO NAVY!!!
That is what happens when one writes what is basically the definitive work on a subject. Fortunately for him the subject is not studied by many people who are in a position to write such works. On the plus side, someone does care. On the down side, we need more people who do care who can create better works. I would love to see a book that covers all three service academies and the history of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
I’m sure Thuddriverson is working on that right now.
you need a history of the CIC?
1. some AF dude has a kid
2. air force fields a football team
3. air force doesn’t play army and navy on a regular basis
3. air force gets nose out of joint because they’re not as big a deal as Army-Navy
4. that dude in #1 comes up with the idea of the trophy to be awarded via round robin, ensuring they get to play the other service academies each year
5. AF wins a lot of the CIC’s and goes from red headed stepchild to spoiled brat
6. PJ shows up and pwns FDB into retirement
6a. That dude from #1’s kid shows up on message boards and tells everyone about his dad approximately once every 3.2 seconds
7. Navy wins again in 2008
note – not sure about the order of 1 and 2
Great, now this blog is going to get spammed by publishers wanting to print that gripping tale.
I was gonna say, “Once upon a time there was a SA no one cared about. So their AD made up a trophy so people would care about them. They won it a bunch of times and their coach was a jerk about it. Then they stopped winning it, and people still don’t really care about them. And their players lived happily ever after coaching football instead of serving in the USAF. The end.”
hahaha
I sense some animosity here and there about AF.
Any animosity towards AF is solely the result of Paul Johnson’s incessant propaganda machine, which even from the bowels of Atlanta still spews forth falsities which provide Navy with unfair motivation in their annual quest for the CIC.
I don’t know about a “spirit video with cool music”, but I’m looking forward to the next “Real Mids of Genius”. Thanks , SupeALoop.
I was gonna say, “Once upon a time there was a SA no one cared about. So their AD made up a trophy so people would care about them. They won it a bunch of times and their coach was a jerk about it. Then they stopped winning it, and people still don’t really care about them. And their players lived happily ever after coaching football instead of serving in the USAF. The end.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA – GoMids you da man!