Christmas games

Bring back the Blue-Gray Game.

And play the Hawaii Bowl to Christmas Day.

 

My great-grandfather LOVED the Blue-Gray game. Loved the college all-star games just like they were the Super Bowl. And he wasn't an NFL scout. Why he had that passion I have no idea, but it was a nice memory of Christmas past. Thanks for throwing that out for chat.

Wait, I just remembered. He was an avid reader of all things Civil War. Must have had a connection there. Damn, it's been 20 years since he died and I just realized that. Wow.

 

All those poor players who missed Christmas Day mass.

Fuck Phil Jackson. His teams stay home on Christmas Day every year anyway.

 

Phil Jackson has a point. The NBA sucks and nobody cares. They should play another night when an equal number of people won't watch the games.

 

I'll second that. On Thursday my grandmother developed fluid around her lungs. You'd think that's serious -- but no. She would have had to suffer until Monday if my mom hadn't thrown a fit. She's developed another problem today -- but that has to wait until tomorrow because no one is on now.

 

There are millions of reasons to play on Christmas.

They all have George Washington's picture on them.

 

If you watched any of the games yesterday, the NIKE Christmas shoes are available online now.

Also unveiled the Red, Yellow, Green; Kobe wearing the Grinch Green ones with Red Laces; LeBron wearing the Red ones with the Green Laces; Durant wearing the all-Yellow ones.

Actually looked pretty slick, but the Green ones didn't do much justice on TV.

 

Phabulous Phil often forgets that he is merely the coach for professional entertainers. It's his job to get his charges ready to entertain the paying customers. They, and by extension, he, exist solely for the pleasure of the dirty masses and middle class consumers of retail goods and services. So if the market calls for his employer to provide entertainment on December 25, then Phil needs to strap it up and get his idiot-savants ready to entertain the folks.

FWIW, Frank, Dean and Sammy worked about 40 New Years Eves. If they can do it, Phil can show up and have a courtside seat for a few hours.

 

I suspect a lot of people are taking Phil's comments a lot more seriously than Phil does.

Most of the time he's just trying to agitate someone. I assume "It's like the Christian holidays don't mean anything to the league anymore" was strictly an attempt to get under David Stern's skin.

He's probably a little tired of coaching on Christmas day for 11 straight years, or whatever the number is, but you can never take his comments at face value.

 

I used to love the Blue-Gray game too. As a kid, I liked the sight of seeing the helmets with the different logos on them.

Plus, it was either that, or the Yule Log. Nobody got tackled on the Yule Log.

 

The NHL Players Association negotiated a complete Dec. 24-25 shutdown in the early '70s. No games, practices or meetings.

Later, they added a roster freeze from Dec. 19-27. Players can't be traded or demoted in that timeframe.

 

If they could go back to the way it was a few years ago, when there was one showcase game (featuring the likes of Jordan, Magic, Bird or a combination thereof), that would be better. With five games, it's as junky as New Year's Day is with bowls.