Biggest Douchebag of the Day - Chicken or the Prof

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I can't imagine the (lack of) intellect it requires to dress up as a chicken and interrupt an economics class, but I give this guy a pass. Mainly because it's a pretty funny stunt. Judge for yourself.

h/t Today's Big Thing.

The professor on the other hand only gets non d-bag points for originally playing it cool and also for the near perfect jump over the table. But whatever credibility he had with his students is lost when he is videotaped chasing a Pi Kapp plebe in a chicken suit. 

Published or not...this prof is definitely a withdraw/Fail.

Trivial Update "Superstar, Uber Athlete"

Here's the recap of episode 35:

ThursdaysRTrivial ep. 35 coming up after this PSA: If you wanna get the most out of your NATS management degree, run away from US Marshals.

ThursdaysRTrivial episode 35 "Cross Training with Herschel in the Off-Season". Welcome to the Twitter Twivia Show that has more prize money than the combined salary of Crapalari's (h/t Ollllddude) lineup. REPLY back your answer for a chance at a fabulous prize. Yesterday was Herschel's birthday, so let's see how well you know the uber athlete. What tv show did #34 compete in during the '86, '87 and '88 off-season, winning it twice?


In Herschel's book Breaking Free, he describes his unquenchable desire for more and more competition. To illustrate the point he describes his three seasons on a US version of a popular television show in the UK called Superstars. The show was produced by IMG, the same management company that handled Herschel in those days. So he was invited to participate in 1986 during the NFLs off-season. By his own admission, in '86 Herschel was smoked. He was particularly disgusted with his performance in tennis. So for the next year he devoted himself to getting better at tennis. He even worked on his game during the football season of '86.


The result was a vast improvement that saw him finish first in Superstars the following year. Another person very familiar with first place is Ally, who tweeted in the correct answer which only helps solidify her argument that this thing should be renamed as a tribute to her sparkling legacy. My best guess is that she has compromising pictures of her boss which allow her to check her twitter feed every 12 seconds or so without the risk of professional consequences. However, I feel certain she would just attribute it to her twitter intuition.


Regardless, she's earned this week's prize....the actual bobsleigh Herschel and driver Brian Shimer used in Albertville. (BDB purchased it off eBay and it came with a pint of actual snow. But that melted, sorry.) It has even more dents than Bill Bates' integrity did back in September of 1980, but should work well in the coming years as Al Gore's climate change continues to take a dramatic shift. Enjoy!


I guess I'm gonna need to either find a way to throw Ally off or find harder questions. Cuz the rest of my followers aren't Dawg enough to take her down. (Yeh, that's a gauntlet I just threw on the floor.) Episode 36 goes primetime followers. With the SEC Tourney starting next week, there's a good chance that the question will center on roundball. So read up.

Senior Night at the Steg

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Lots of emotions last night as the Dawgs lost to Calipari's cats. First and foremost, here's a short clip of the seniors getting recognized.

Many thanks to Ricky McPhee, Tyler Whatley and Albert Jackson for all the games, hours of practice and just being DamnGoodDawgs!

Some brief thoughts:
- thanks to Alan for the ticket. I can't link from this program on my phone but he runs Alan's Assessments over on the left there. (UPDATE - here's the link.)
- Mark Pope spoke about the team's desire to beat Kentucky before the game. Unfortunately, as much as the Dawgs have grown since the meeting in Lexington, Calipari's employees have grown exponentially more.
- Thompkins played tight. I doubt coming off the bench a few seconds in played as much of a role as the number of scouts in attendance did. Just hope that wasn't his last game at Stegeman.
- I've seen men mad before. But when Leslie cramped up Coach Fox came unglued in a way that usually leads to something closer to A-bombs more than F-bombs. If that ref were Coach's red tie his family would be planning a funeral this morning.
- I'd love to watch the game again to verify this, but overall I thought the backcourt played consistently while the frontcourt struggled mightily as a whole. Perhaps the polar opposite of the game in January.
- except for Jeremy Price. Damn fine game from him.
- Lastly, I've been going to games at Stegeman Coliseum since the late 70s. This was the second rowdiest crowd I've seen there. Alan and I were left to wonder what it'll look like in a couple years when we're stretching the Ws into the twenties this time of year.

Something to look forward to for sure. Cuz those days are coming I can promise you that.




- Posted using BlogPress from Bernie's iPhone

My God...a Forty-Eight Year Old

On March 3, 1962 Christine Walker gave birth to Herschel. So on this day 48 years ago, a legend was indeed born. Have a seat Reader and let's take just a moment to recognize and celebrate.

I'm not going to pretend to tell you anything you don't already know. Every Georgia fan has their own favorite Herschel highlight, their favorite moment and their favorite anecdote. That's what happens when you roll into town in your trans am and rack up 5,259 yards in just 994 carries and 33 games. You become larger than life, a bigger football player than the storied hedges can contain.

No, this post is not to regurgitate a bunch of highlights, memories. We can do that the other 364 days of the year. Today is for celebrating the man that Herschel is. It's his birthday. He's a 48 year old man in the body of a man half his age. To prepare for this post I attempted 10 push ups yesterday. I got to 6 and realized I would never get the opportunity to run over Bill Bates anyway.

A teammate once said Herschel marches to a different drummer....and the drummer is him. His athleticism was too immense for a football huddle and as unequaled as he was on the gridiron, he was an even bigger freak on the track. Guys his size weren't supposed to run that damn fast. And when college competition proved too feeble, yet the NFL failed to answer his call....he became the poster child for a new league.

But Athens has always been near and dear to Herschel's heart. He still makes appearances and challenges other enemy coaches to fist fights. He's been as important to the University of Georgia since he left Athens as he was when he was carrying the football for our beloved Georgia Bulldogs. 

Cuz that's what legends do. To celebrate today I'm simply going to share a couple things you may not have come across in your own Herschel worship. I would love it if you would share your favorites as well.

First is Herschel's book, Breaking Free. No matter your feelings about Dissociative Identity Disorder, it's diagnosis or it's treatment, you'll come away from this book with a greater understanding of the man who wore #34. Take this portion, where he relates showing up his first day at UGA:

By this time, I was getting a bit more antsy. Somebody else had to be pulling up any minute. I walked over to the cafeteria to peek through the window to see if maybe there was another parking lot and other guys on the team were already inside laughing at me. All I saw was row after row of tables with chairs sitting on their tops, legs poking up like petals on a flower. I looked to my left and saw a piece of paper was taped to the door a few feet down from where I stood. I walked over and read it. It was the same letter as the one that had been sent to me. I looked closely and saw that the meeting was scheduled for five o'clock. What I had failed to notice, as is probably obvious to you, was that it was scheduled for five o'clock in the afternoon.

Herschel's book is chock full of stories that not only paint a clearer picture of the tremendous athlete we've grown up adoring, but also lets us into his psyche (as much as he is able to) to gain a better understanding of what has made him socially awkward, an enigma. We all have pieces of our own puzzle that we struggle to fit into our own picture. Through his book, Herschel shows you that his pieces were ridiculously shaped and ill-equipped for helping him live a normal life.

Chances may be greater that you've read this incredible article from the Sports Illustrated vault by John Underwood. I know I've linked to it before and have seen it linked and mentioned on other blogs. It chronicles Herschel's life as an athlete up to spring practice before his junior season. The Athens community was not alone in their wonder of Herschel's achievements, just as they were not alone in their wonderment as to whether or not college football's greatest player was entering his final season as an amateur. Dooley's Junkyard Dawgs were at their apex, having just won their second consecutive SEC crown and the football world, most notably the NFL and NCAA braintrusts were waiting with bated breath to see what this kid from Wrightsville GA would choose to do.

Would Herschel stay a senior season at UGA, leave early for a league like the CFL that welcomed his athleticism...or take the NFL to court for the opportunity to play on Sundays.
Underwood includes great quotes from the likes of:

• Mike Cavan - ...it all boils down to how much of a legend he wants to be.
• Vince Dooley - ...all rules are imperfect. They don't apply to some people. The NFL rule is a great rule for the vast majority.
• and Herschel himself - (It) made no sense to grow up in one country and play football in another.

Lastly, I'd like to also direct you to Dawgcast's special show The Legend of Herschel Walker. In this podcast Derek reads from Joe Posnanski's now infamous Herschel. I enjoyed reading Mr. Posnanski's piece. It's truly a treasure. However, I also like to hear it read and with each word Derek captures the enthusiasm and excitement with which Dawg fans embraced the legend during his meteoric rise to fame in the early 80s. 

For in the end, Herschel Walker truly was and is a legend. And today, we celebrate the day he became human...for lack of a better word.

Happy Birthday Herschel! Keep Kicking Ass.

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Herschel Said The Ball Ain't Heavy

Some videos to get you ready for tomorrow, kind of a historical walk through a Herschel Walker YouTube search. And if you don't know what tomorrow is...you better start your homework Reader. Hate for you to lose your Dawg Card.

His recruitment...he has love for everybody.

He adds cleat marks to Bill Bates' chest...My God, a freshman.

His signature leap....you know, he never lost to floriDuh.

MMA Video...don't piss this guy off.

Go you Herschel Walker.

Monday’s Meatloaf – Flushing the Turds

Florida was the team building some nice momentum heading into the Ides of March. They came to Athens on a three game winning streak, including a convincing win over Tennessee on Tuesday in the land of the lost. Then Albert Jackson swatted a desperation pass with just a couple of ticks on the clock and suddenly our cold-blooded arch enemies were looking at a fat L.

Billy Donovan, have a seat back on the Bubble. Careful now…it might just burst.

The gayturds may still make the NCAA field of 65. But today they are sweating it a little more. Kind of like we were sweating it in that second half watching the 15 point halftime lead wither away. But the Stegosaurus has proven to be a tough out under Coach Fox’s watch. Saturday was tough as nails.

And it was the bench that nailed it all down. I guess faced with the prospect of beating Eddie Munster’s Turd Herders less than 48 hours after taking Vandy to the 45th minute, Fox figured the bench would need to punch the time clock more than usual.

Good call. Cuz now it’s the Dawgs with the momentum heading into a home stretch facing Kentucky (home) and LSU (road). Meanwhile the reptiles have both Kentucky and Vandy left. Albert Jackson essentially flushed the toilet when he sent that Dan Werner pass into the stands, leaving just .1 second on the clock.

Even if floriDuh does make the big tourney, at least we get to see them scramble up out of the bowl, again.

Today’s Ingredients

• Be sure to check out the SEC widget to your left. Hoops Hysteria begins this week where you can be a part of 10 days of giveaways. Prizes include autographed memorabilia and SEC tourney tix. The first giveaway will be Thursday, the first day of the womens’ tourney.
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  Speaking of the women, our Lady Dawgs rolled over the hogs and grabbed some momentum of their own heading into Gwinnett Arena. Groo has an in-depth look at how being good was a little unlucky, then provides a silver lining.
• Over at Foley, Perno’s Diamond Dawgs helped continue the weekend’s domination with a sweep of Stetson. Also on the collegiate diamond, Cord points out that the Beavers took it to the HillBillys this weekend. Yeh, we get it dude. Oregon State doesn’t just cheat to win CWS titles.
• Exile echoes Coach Fox’s sentiments, “Pretty solid little team”. And Mike sees Fox as the SEC coach most worthy of the post-season accolades.
• And one last nugget on Coach Fox from Conner Nolte’s blog. It looks the grind of the SEC hasn’t taken away from the head guy’s stellar touch. 
• The gridiron may be on the backburner, but it’s almost always the topic du jour regardless of what the calendar says. And the Senator takes an honest look at some off season quotes and practices through the words of Ty Webb. I’ll only add that a donut with no hole is a danish.
• ecdawg looks at the versatility of Stephon Tuitt.
• Streit takes an early look at some SEC out of conference matchups that we should be looking forward to.
• UGA VIII Wow’d us on Friday then came back yesterday with Part II.
• Hale somehow caught up with Torrin Lawrence in order to update us on his SEC Indoor dominance. My God, a sophomore.
• So we kick the ever loving (crap) outta Can’tada in their own Olympics, set a new record for total medals…and our President is still the one on the losing end of a bet with their President  King  Head Socialist  Leader…?? Are you kidding me?
• Is Tiger’s thirst quenchable? Gatorade thinks not.
• We always had a hunch St. Timothy had an evil streak. But to run a 6.66 in the cone drill…damn. That’s a helluva a way to come out clean.

I had the pleasure of welcoming my one good wrambling wreck’d buddy into the Over Forty Club Saturday evening. Miranda will try and convince you he had the best of both worlds in college: he got edumacated at NATS M-F, but came to Athens to party on the weekends. In fact one weekend after getting a passing grade on his helluva engineer pop quiz he was so geek’d up, he and I nearly came to blows on Broad St. after getting over-served at Peppinos. (The truth is, he insisted on one more pitcher when my drunken calculations were telling me we’d had enough. And I didn’t even know how to use the slide rule he pulled out of his coat.) Luckily, brother Jim stepped in to mediate. Or maybe we just threw unsuccessful haymakers until we passed out. I just don’t recall.

Regardless, it was a nice party put on by his lovely wife Erin…complete with a cake that I graciously refused. Since so few of us Dawg fans encounter insect lovers in actual social situations other than annual beat downs on the gridiron, I decided to make some notes to share. Here are some of my casual observations:

• Not surprisingly, the guests ultimately divided into a Tech group and a Dawg group.
• The techhies only outnumbered the rest of us by a few.
• My group optimized a location closest to the cold beverages.
• No stripper came out of the cake…and luckily no johnson did either.
• And lastly, even after all these years (not to mention several hung juries) Fred is still a lovable sonuvabitch. God bless you Georgia.

And I’d be remiss if I did not also point out that I was given the opportunity to hold and peruse through the Tech Athletic Bible. It was like a large scrapbook of their athletic history on the gridiron, yet had at least one chapter missing. I thumbed through it desperately wanting to catch a glimpse of the Tech Trinity in all their glory. Yet found no mention of Dave Braine, Chan Gailey and Reggie Ball.

Rest assured though, that addition will be my gift to you. I’ve already tracked down interviews with each of them. Not surprisingly, Braine was the hardest to find. Seems before he left he had given himself a brand new 10 year contract with the stipulation that he would never be competitive in the ACC. He was comfortably resting on his laurels at an Atlanta area Golden Corral. Happy frickin’ Birthday!

You too Reader, whenever your BIG four OH is. Invite me to come. Especially if there’s meatballs. For now, enjoy your Monday and your meatloaf. Here’s a fork. Don’t overtax it.

Bernie

Screw em! This is YOUR Time...

If we play em ten times, they might win nine eight.

Go USA! Suck it Can'tnadians.

Biggest Douchebag of the Day

It's bad enough he walks right into a glass door. But then he just stares at it...and leaves. (h/t Today's Big Thing)