M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D What the hell are you wearing??

Two quick things:

1) WHAT THE HELL?? This is fugly!! This better be a one time thing...like the Byrd Blackout!!

2) After visiting the previous link...YES I am a girl!! I guess it's innate for me to notice these things!!

Slam Dunk da Funk

I love football...it's exciting and thrilling and fun, but nothing gets me going like college basketball. As I'm writing this I'm watching Maryland's first game of the season against Fairleigh Dickinson. Of course, the game's off to a typical Maryland start...slow!! The team is coming out a little rusty, and I'm beginning to think that the preseason ranking was very generous. This team has lost its cancer - John Gilchrist. He was becoming a me a player and it was affecting the team. When Gary basically benched him in the NIT, the team did pretty decent. Except for that South Carolina game that I attended at the Garden.

I love college basketball, and going to Maryland made me love it and appreciate it so much more. Basketball was my life at Maryland. I can count on one hand the games that I missed. I can recount losses and wins like its my religion. I made the 12 hour drive to Atlanta to see my Terps win their first National Championship. That is one of my top Maryland moments. I was lucky to go to Maryland when the bball team was at its peak.

I always get caught up in sports. I wait all summer for football. I follow all news on Training Camp and even mini-camps. And don't forget the draft. It comes at the most perfect time. College Basketball is just ending, spring football is starting, lacrosse season is in bloom and then it hits you...NFL Draft time!! Ahh its perfect. But once October rolls around and Midnight Madness is here, basketball becomes an obsession. Granted, I don't feel like a super crazed fan anymore since I graduated, but I love Maryland Basketball nonetheless.

It's a way of life in College Park. It brings people together. Especially at Maryland! (Riots, much!?) Everyone whoever attended Maryland hates Duke. I would say if I made a list of things I hate, Duke would be number 1 and probably number 2 because its that bad. I was watching Jeopardy! the other night and it was the college championships. There was a Duke girl there and I laughed everytime she got an answer wrong. I rooted against her to the point that I was reciting anti-Duke chants commonly heard at basketball games. It was bad.

Maryland has owned Duke in recent years, and their fans act like it doesn't bother them, but they know we have their number. It's soo bad that when I was living in NYC I went to a Terrapin Club game watch party for the Duke game at this nice sports bar and Duke was having their alumni party there as well and some old Duke guy started crap with a young Maryland guy. It was pathetic. But awesome because the police were called. My dad and I got a kick out of that!!

I can't wait for that first Maryland/Duke game this year. It's gonna be awesome!! Of course, it's not the same since I no longer attend Maryland, but I'm a proud alumni and Terrapin Club member so the Terps will always be my team. I will love them win or lose!!

Did I mention how much I love college basketball!!?? and that I hate Duke!!??


BTW...Fairleigh Dickinson's roster is beyond comical. First, Justin Timberlake's "brother" plays for them. Second, this guy's name is Peeples...I can't help but think of this guy!! Lastly, their head coach can blow a bubble with his bum, bum, bum!! Haha...hysterical!!

My Boyfriend's Back and You're Gonna be in Trouble...

...Ok maybe you won't be in trouble, but the Jacksonville Jaguars may be.

That's right folks, Kyle Boller is making his triumphant return this Sunday against the Jags. Hopefully he'll do alright, since he's only played 2 1/2 quarters this season, and he was cheered off the field.

He really needs to show the fans he can handle the job of NFL Quarterback. People in Baltimore have zero tolerance for formidable players/teams. Probably due to the fact that O's suck and pretty much have ruined our tolerance for bad seasons and players.

I have always said Kyle can be a good QB and lead this team the way the Ravens organization has planned. He has never had a good receiving corps, and I personally think the O-Line has declined immensely since his rookie season. Because of both of those factors, Kyle's job is pretty tough.

I remember watching football as a kid and feeling bad for the quarterbacks after they threw interceptions. My dad would say something about a receiver running a wrong route or dropping a pass into a waiting defenders hands. I piped in about feeling sorry for the QB. Everything always falls back on him, no matter if it's his fault or not.

That's why I've always had a weakness for QBs. I love them. Plus, it helps that most of them are pretty hot.

But in all seriousness the pressure is on Kyle to perform well. Right now, realistically, the Ravens are out of the playoff race. Unless we rock the socks off the rest of our games and the rest of our division falls apart...aka Carson Palmer being killed by lightning or Chad Johnson and Big Ben being hurt for real, like in a motorcycle accident (that seems to be a favorite).

Kyle has a lot to prove. He needs to prove he can lead this team into the redzone and score a touchdown. He needs to prove that he is the quarterback of the future for the Ravens. I don't know how anyone expected a rookie QB to come into this organization with the O-line and the receivers that were available and go to the Superbowl. The Defense can't carry this team anymore. They're not the studs that they were in 2000.

Kyle finally has some legitimate receivers in Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton (when healthy) and Todd Heap. Now is definitely make or break time. I want Kyle to stay in Baltimore, and not as a backup QB. I want him to excel. I want him to win. And not just because I think he's hot. It's more than that. I don't want the Ravens going through 10 more QBs to find the perfect one.

So hopefully Kyle can show Baltimore and the rest of the league that he deserves to be here. These last 8 games are more than a test for Kyle, they're a final exam. His fate in Baltimore and as the number one QB is riding on these last 8 games. No one expects him to take this under-achieving team to the playoffs. They just want him to put some points on the board, preferably not the Matt Stover kind.

I think Kyle will impress people, especially the ones who have been calling for his head here in Baltimore (that means you Mike Preston!) He's better than everyone thinks. He's ready, and trust me, here in Baltimore we're ready for anything.

But then again I may be a little biased!!

Were we watching the same game??

Last night, my beloved Ravens were featured on Monday Night Football against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Of course, we were destined to lose.

I don't know a single Ravens fan who thought we could actually win, well at least before the game started. The Ravens came out strong. We looked good, for once this season. We made the big plays, for the most part. We drove down the field and got a touchdown on our opening drive. Something, I'm guessing, we haven't done in a loooooong time.

While the game was close the whole time, the Ravens seemed like they were dominating. We were always one play away from going up big time on the Steelers in Primetime!! Of course, we could never capitalize on anything, as always. We took the lead with 3 minutes left in the game. Up by 2 and Pittsburgh had the ball. After two big pass plays, the Steelers were in field goal range and most of us realized that the game was over. The Steelers would either be up by 1 or 5. Either way, the Ravens were going to have to score when they got the ball back, with no timeouts, either.

That's when we, or should I say Anthony Wright, reverted back to old form. Wright didn't even get a pass downfield. The seconds were ticking off the clock and we had 3rd and 10 and he didn't even launch a pass downfield. Instead he runs the ball!! RUNS THE BALL!!! YOU'RE A QUARTERBACK NOT JAMAL LEWIS OR BETTER YET CHESTER TAYLOR!!! What the hell. We didn't need to run the clock out. We needed to keep as much time on the board as possible.

This is what I don't get. Everyone seems to forget about the entire game, offensively, minus a few big pass plays to Derrick "The Man" Mason (btw, my new nickname for him). Wright was regular old Anthony "Dumbass" Wright. Plain and simple. So then why today do I hear people saying how great he is. Are they blind? He made stupid mistakes. He threw a sure TD pass over the head/intentionally out of bounds to Randy Hymes in double coverage when he had Mason in the endzone wide open waving his hands around like Tom Hanks in Cast Away!!

Why does everyone forget the dumb things he does CONSTANTLY?? Maybe I feel this way because I am a Boller supporter, but there are obvious reasons why Wright is a backup!! Sometimes he makes big plays that overshadow his thousands of mistakes.

I still blame this loss on Wright and the offensive play calling. We had a shot to go up before the break and instead took timeouts to conserve time and then throw 3 yard passes rather than make some big plays and get into field goal or rather TD position. We wasted time and plays. The defense played their hearts out considering they were missing their two biggest players, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. But depsite the heart of the defense, the offense let us down once again. And that is why we are 2-5 rather than 6-1, like we should be now. We had a cake schedule, minus the Indy game.

The Ravens have screwed themselves, and while I admit, that last night was probably one of our best performances this year, it was still par/sub-par. We can do so much better!!

Injuries or not, the Ravens are slacking and not playing their best football. Jamal admits it, so why doesn't the coaching staff or the rest of the team!?


Ok so now that that rant is done, I'm going to share a funny story/thought I had while visiting my good buddy Dre in Chicago last weekend....We are walking on Navy Pier and we see this guy with a Ray Lewis jersey on. Dre yells to him that "Ray Lewis is God." The man says, "Preach on Brother!" I then say to Dre, "If Ray Lewis is God, then is Ed Reed Jesus?" We have both decided that this statement is true. If Ray Lewis is God, then Ed Reed is Jesus! Plain and simple. Now my question to you is "Who's the Virgin Mary?" Ozzie Newsome or Brian Billick. I'm thinkin Ozzie!!

My Pumpkin ROCKS!!!

My pumpkin is freakin awesome....it pales in comparison to any other carved jack-o-lantern!! Ok so maybe the team didn't win last night, but that had to be the best performance we have put up this year!! We actually looked good, you know except for that whole Anthony Wright thing!!