From Smithfield In The East, To Mebane In The West….. The Greater Triangle Is ELECTRIC!” – That was how I opened our Good Sports pre-game show Saturday morning. Yes, the partisan outreach does ooze concentrically a bit farther in all directions. My implication was to the reality that State vs Carolina is a UNC System intra-family squabble held in our backyard.
A Family Squabble can certainly be intense, and this one is; but the only relevance to unaffected neighbors is the abject silliness exhibited by the respective combatants. The 2013 version fulfilled the plum-foolish element as well as being quite a compelling sports event.
I was not “there” (aka “at The Carter”) in-person despite generous offers of complimentary tickets from three separate BL Buddies. I opted to watch the annual over-hyped big doins from BLSays World HQ a few miles north of Ground Zero. Carter-Finley concessions not offering Blondie’s slow-cooked beef stew being a key reason for my decision.
That decision allowed me to pass on much of the goggle-eyed spittle-spewing weepin’ moanin’ and gnashin’ of teeth that ensued. I’ve seen enough of that yucky behavior over enough years to not need further proof that man’s evolution from more primitive species left more than a few specimens short of more than just a pair of opposable thumbs.
Okey Dokey….. lets run thru each category in this post-event evaluation.
Our Good Sports pre-game guest was the always congenial, hail fellow very well-met, Wolfpack Sports Network intrepid sideline reporter Tony Haines. Tony is cut from the same bolt of “good guy cloth” as Don Shea, Charlie Bryant, Johnny Evans, Bobby Purcell, the late Frank Weedon and Gary Hahn. I’ve had the pleasure of acquainting with each of those fine fellows except Gary but have ne’er heard a discouraging word about “The Voice of ______”.
Art, Tony and I had an engrossing twelve minutes of lively banter. I alerted him to Sunday’s upcoming All Wuff NFL QB Encounter in Seattle between Russell and Glennon. We also discussed the controversy from State’s Clemson game involving “did Underwood step out-of-bounds or not?” I offered my theory that John Swofford somehow moved the sideline. Tony accepted that as a logical explanation.
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Devotees of my SaidWHAT Media co-hort AgentPierce know that AP ain’t too fond of a certain Triangle-area maniacal media mogul name of Jim Goodmon. “Ain’t too fond of” being an understatement. NC State loyalists might soon be joining Pierce in his intense disdain for that limo-liberal super silverspoon.
Jim Goodmon’s granddaddy left him WRAL-TV5 / Capital Broadcasting which, coincidentally carried “the game”. Beginning Friday evening and including a promo during the game….. WRAL started hyping its upcoming EXPOSE !!!! of nefarious shenanigans afoot within Wolfpack athletics involving sports agents, illegal perks yadda yadda. Said EXPOSE to be aired this coming Monday. Interesting timing coincidence…. huh?
Did WRAL blow-dried info-boy Cullen Browder choose a Dan Kane costume for Halloween?
A word of warning to WuffNation….. if you are not familiar with how Jim Goodmon instructs his dumpster-diving reporters to ignore facts in favor of the provocative sound bite, you might ask anyone connected with Governor McCrory’s administration. WRAL is located just a rock throw away from Frau Yow’s lair in the Case Building. Will Western Boulevard become a Maignot Line. “Disrespecting” might soon escalate to lots more than stompin’ a logo. Before WuffLoonies go mega-nutzo….. Jim Goodmon went to Duke, not UNC.
If Frau, Chancellor Randy, Gott or DaveWho are registered R’s, expect Goodmon’s goons to REALLY get nasty. Jim has declared a “take no prisoners” ideological holy war on 65% of the state’s population. Really? Yeah, really. Pierce has all the gory details.
Maybe a certain outspoken Wuff Loyalist should ask his pal Bill”TheBully”Barber to get his pal Goodmon to “back off”. Investigative dumpster-diving makes for strange bedfellows. Indeed.
Meanwhile, one of the three guys not permanently furloughed YET in the N&O Sports Dept wrote the umpteenth story about “locking up the borders for in-state recruiting”. That one was first written by Dick Herbert about Bill Murray, Earle Edwards and Jim Hickey…. before sputnik. Whats next? ….. a feature on “Wednesday before Thanksgiving is really busy at RDU”. Journalism Is Dead – RIP.
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Lets talk about “the game”. I thought it had all the ooey gooey emotional elements that a rivalry game oughta have.
Pack gets a coupla breaks early on, go up 10-0 and visions of a blowout quickly spread across the red-clad grandstands. NOT SO FAST……. The Fighting Fedorians “wobble but don’t fall-down”.
Did the young Fedorians “come of age” down 10-0 and the Wuff Zombie Horde marching enmasse for the kill? Methinks they did indeed. Shreveport Here We Come !! Heck… maybe even the Beef O’Brady Bowl !!
Directed by their Ebony & Ivory QB Duo of Bryn & Marquis….. The Fedorians storm back. UNC bandwagoners who had begun sorting their sock drawers after the first five minutes began drifting back to their flat-screens. They never got further than “FIRE FEDO……” on their monkey board posts and maybe won’t for a few weeks.
Was there the usual OBVIOUS BLATANT evidence of Swoffordian Conspiracy rampant with every block and tackle? Is the Pope Catholic? Are Wuffs Paranoid? Of course the DNA evidence of “The Evil Commish” was all over the explusion of the innocent Wuff linebacker who only leaned in to tell the Fedorian runner “good run”.
Whether the annual backyard feces flinging is “amid the pines” or “at the fairgrounds” we KNOW the phrase “that damn John Swofford” will be muttered from lupine fangs.
That Little Johnny instructed “his refs” to call all those holding penalties on The Fedorians as they drove for the “put’em away” score with six minutes to go was, of course, OBVIOUS. Johnny just wanted to hold the TV viewers until the end. How he finagled the Heels’ kicker to stub the extra point to keep the margin at 8 was Swoffordian genius at its best.
As usual, there were a dozen or so “depends on one’s partisan perspective” calls / no-calls throughout the game. May it always be so. Watching distraught lunatics’ heads explode NEVER gets old regardless of the side they’re on.
Fedorians win. Larry extends his career mastery o’er the Pack to two. That’s two more than The Butcher had for anyone keeping score. Scoreboard 27-19 – celebrate or “blame Swofford” as the case may be. Uuhh…. NOT QUITE!
The Fedorian Chapter of “The Bloods” had this oh-so-NOT-original idea to “disrespect” The Wuff Chapter of “The Crips” by stompin’ their mid-field logo. You know that logo that the Wuffs “pirated” from ECU…… Uh oh!
NOTE: I’m fine with NC State copying the ECU logo. Imitation = sincerest form of flattery, but Henry Hinton’s lawyers might not be.
WHOA. Wait a minute BobLee….. “Stompin da Logo” …… didn’t we go down that silly road 8-10 years ago, back in Amato vs Bunting Days? Yes, we did.
….. but these Blue Bloods and these Red Crips were in Jr Hi back then. Larry and Dave were wherever they were. Frau and Bubba were wherever they were. Now we get to beat this very dead horse ALL OVER AGAIN!. Yeeeeeee freakin’ Haaa!
The Wuff’s whizbang marketing slogan “This Is Our State” is cool….. IF you are a Wuff. Not so cool if your school’s nickname happens to match the state’s nickname. Sure. The whole brouhaha is a silly pissin’ contest. Folks, it ain’t like we be dealin’ with crap that really matters here.
EXCEPT to the aforementioned chapters of gridiron Bloods & Crips….. and, apparently, to a quite disconsolate Coach Dave Who From Northern Where.
Dave Who, without checking with Frau or Bobby or Annabelle or Kennel for historical precedent, clenched his teeth and sneered “We are going to remember what they did on the 50-yard line … for 364 days,” or something to that effect. Yo Dave. Check with the equipment guy to see if Chuck left a
pair of his shoes and sunglasses around. Yawn…… grrrrrr.
“Shadrach”, acting apparently as spokesman for The Red-clad disrespected Crips, vowed vengeance (LINK) in a form to be determined. Whether Meshach and/or Abednigo are on-board this vengeance train was not noted.
Meanwhile The blue-clad victorious Bloods…. with dreadlocks aflyin’….. romped and stomped at mid-field of the rapidly emptying stadium “at the fairgrounds”. Have I mentioned lately about that ever-widening cultural chasm between the gladiators and the spectators?
Tre Boston and Shadrach Thornton behaving true to the stereotype of young AfAm athletes. Anyone SHOCKED by either’s reaction has not paid attention to college sports for the past ten years. Considering “stomping on a logo” is a thought I have never entertained. As for being “disrespected”; being a Conservative in a community served by The N&O and by WRAL, I developed an immunity to their antics a long time ago.
I ain’t never gone run outta column fodder.
