Back To The Barbershop

It’s time yet again for an update with my barber. Yes, I know it seems like I get my haircut all the time. I probably go every 3 or 4 weeks on the average. This trip was a pretty good one as it was the day after my old high school got beat by a Single A team in football. As usual, he had ways to fix our team. It’s the best going after we lose that week because he’ll be all kinds of… you guessed it, FIRED UP. Not only did he give his theory on high school football, we got to talking about college football and betting. This is another topic that gets him going. I asked him about his bets that day, knowing what his reaction would be. He acts like he is finished betting, but we all know better. He brings this one along, “Fuck those games! Those motherfuckers!” After that, it was Notre Dame chat, when the biggest Irish fan in the area walks in (Paulie Ayers for the locals). Of course, me and Paulie always find someway to talk about Notre Dame when we see each other in town or when I work at the school he teaches at. A few hours to go (at that point) until the epic Michigan/Notre Dame game and we both thought Notre Dame would get rolled…

That will be my lead-in to the game itself. The spread on this game was Michigan favored by 14. The good thing was that it was in South Bend, Indiana. Our main running back, Ryan Grant, was back in action after messing up his hamstring. Ironically, he wasn’t our feature back this day. Enter Darius Walker, the man who broke Hershel Walker’s high school records in Georgia, the Dirty South. And did I mention he is a freshman? This kid reminded me of older Notre Dame teams, led by the run. On a side note, he simply dominates in NCAA 2005 for the video game fans taking notes. We strayed a bit from the West Coast Offense. Ty Willingham is a heck of a coach, but how I long for the option days of Lou Holtz. That’s easy to say now though when we are losing every year. Yet we didn’t lose this week. The one team I want to beat each year, Michigan, went down 28-20. We still are not a good team, but it feels nice to beat a Top 10 team, a hated rival, anyway you can get it.

Towards the end of the game, I went to eat at probably my favorite place in the area, Minard’s, in the mean streets of Clarksburg. I tried a new dish called Pasta Rockefeller. What is this combination? Pasta (imagine that!), spinach, scallops, along with olive oil go into this beast. If you’re into garlic loaded Tally food, this is for you. I’ll definitely get this one again for sure. In fact, I’m craving some right now, doh!



Sunday creeps in on us. Or as Bone Thugs N Harmony would say back in the day, Creepin On Ah Come Up. This is the true opening of NFL games, even if we had a game on Thursday as well as Saturday. My Bears played a division foe in the Lions. Both of these teams are brutal bottom feeders. Here’s a stat to munch on: The Lions come into Chicago by losing 24 straight road games. 24! That is a total disgrace. With that, I should be feeling safe about this matchup. As college football analyst Lee Corso would say, “NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!” Yes, we got rocked by the Lions, ending their road loss streak. Great, just wonderful. The final was 20-16. We had the ball inside the 10 yard line with less than 30 seconds left and blew it. The only bright spot was that my boy Thomas Jones had a nice debut as our starting running back.

While reading my girl Jenn Jenn’s latest Blog entry, I’m saddened by the amount of girls who aren’t big sports fans. This is true in my area at least, not sure about yours. Jenn is big into football this year, which impresses me a great deal. If you’re a hardcore sports fan and a girl, where have you been all my life? As Don West would famously say, “GEM MINT 10’S DO NOT EXIST!” In Shinnston they sure don’t anyways. And if you’re a Celtics fan, I may just marry you on the spot.

Time to end up with WWE Unforgiven. Cork and Spank come over to take part in the festivities. Before the wrestling talk, here’s one last football note. Cork (Dolphins fan), Spank (Bills fan), and me (Bears fan) all lost this week in NFL action. The funny thing, or maybe sad, is that my Bears scored the most this week out of our teams (Dolphins: 7, Bills: 10, Bears: 16).

Unforgiven was not a great Pay Per View. It wasn’t horrible, but I personally only liked two matches on the card. One of those was the opener, Chris Benoit and Steven Regal against Ric Flair and Batista. Flair is pure entertainment. For being an old man, you know exactly what moves he will do, but he’s still the man. Our favorite is easily when he’s getting rocked, wobbles in the middle of the ring for a good 5 seconds, then falls flat on his face. It never gets old. That alone, with Flair involved, is worth it. Benoit makes Flair tap out with the Crossface. The other match I enjoyed was the Intercontinental Title Ladder Match, Jericho versus Christian. This wasn’t a 5-star Ladder Match, but nonetheless a good one. Jericho ends up winning but a part the three of us liked is when King and JR overemphasize injuries. During this match alone, they say we have lacerations on the arm, compressed vertebrae, ladder shot between the eyes, as well as groin mangulations. HBK made a nice return against Kane, doing his signature moves, and bleeding like a pig. In the main event, which could’ve been better, Triple H returns to form by getting his title back from Randy Orton with the help of Evolution. A shady ending disappointed many. The next Pay Per View? October 3rd, No Mercy, a SmackDown production.



I’m done for now. The next Blog will talk about RAW from Monday, Real World Week 2, and whatever strange happenings goes on in The Madhouse Of Bird33. One.