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Count me now a fan of Chad Ocho Cinco. As I've said before, I don't watch the NFL. The last time I watched it with any regularity was probably back in 2000.

Now he joined the NFL after or just before I stopped watching the NFL so I don't know anything about the guy, other than he changed his name from Johnson to Ochocinco. However, reading an article on him in the local paper (the Vikings are apparently playing Cincinnati next) I can unquestionably say I'm a fan of him.

Reading about the things he's been fined for and seeing some of the things on Youtube you can count me as a fan of him. He might now be my favorite "professional" player, especially since (sadly) the way "professional" now is considered to be, he wouldn't be considered as being "professional". He is a player that puts the fun back into the game. Of course him being my favorite "professional" athlete doesn't mean much, because as I said I don't watch the NFL. Players like Ochocinco sadly are few and far between these days but luckily there's still some of them around (Manny Ramirez, etc).

I'd like to udder the phrase "No Fun League", but really all the "professional" leagues are the same way. It's polite society at their worst. The paper had it right "Chad Ochocinco remains forever a happy-go-lucky free spirit in a button-down league that demands conformity". That's the way "professional" sports have become and really what society is. The leagues are all about conformity from the way players and coaches even fans should be. The fact is that almost everything that isn't very, very, very polite gets a fine and even costs you a game (Serena Williams losing a point because she argued with an official, hello!).

Now the leagues can make any silly rule they want (especially when it comes to the NHL, apparently they intend to) but I love the fact that Ochocinco apparently sets aside money for fines because he intends to break rules. If he eventually gets suspended for doing that and then keeps doing it he just might be in the running for one of my favorite players ever.

I'm certainly one who says the officials get too much blame, but then again I don't think the players and coaches should get fined for arguing with the refs, making comments about the officiating in news conferences, or anything to that matter. If someone wants to blame a ref on them losing a game (nevermind that in the case of the NHL a game is 60 minutes long and they're blaming the ref for one moment in time) than that's their business, they shouldn't be fined for that.

Link: http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/78925377.html?elr=KArksUUUycaEacyU

Weekend

UMD won twice over Mankato this weekend, a very good thing. Good start of the season.

As-of right now I'm feeling very low on the motivation to write much on the blog, not sure why that is. I've been writing on this (well, actually on the Livejournal site) for five, going on six, years. Maybe my posts will just be sporadic.

If anyone else wants to write, just drop me a line. I'm sure you can have more insightful, more creative, and more frequent posts than I've done. Of course that never has been my goal, my posts have always been just my take on the wonderful world of college hockey and sports in general.

Relax, it's just a game

Should be a good weekend. Amy, I, and "Little Miss" Kaelyn staying around town. Saturday Amy's parents are coming to town and they will be taking care of Little Miss that night (mostly just hanging out at the house because it will be past Kaelyn's bedtime) while Amy and I are able to go to a friend's housewarming party.

I've been do a little work around the house. I finally mowed the lawn, seriously all the bad weather has to be my fault, it has been bad weather since the John Deere was delivered. I also sprayed the outside of the house to (hopefully) keep the asian beetles from getting inside. Next is caulking the concrete cracks that are open and maybe that will keep the bugs out as well. Such is life when you have farmland near you.

One of the radio guys, when talking about Minnesota sports fans and particularly Minnesota Twins fans, gets kind of agitated about why fans settle for "a good season". Meaning, the Twins made the playoffs, why do people "settle" for that and not get mad that the Twins don't try and sign more players to win the World Series?

Quite the opposite, I've never understood fans (or maybe more adequately fanatics) getting riled up because of such silly things as "we haven't been to the playoffs for three years" or "we haven't won a national/world title". Frankly I really don't understand fan expectations at all, short of "our player raped someone", "our coach assaulted someone", or "our team owner is embezzling money". I don't understand the fan expectations of "that ref is horrible, he must be fired, because he never does a good job" or "the coach must be fired because we've had a losing season".

I don't really understand why I should have expectations. If my team makes the playoffs I'm happy about it. If they don't it's no big deal because there is always that chance that they will make it next year, the year after, or somewhere down the line. If a ref makes an incorrect call, even one at the end of the game, I just think "that's life". I don't place any sort of blame what-so ever. My saying the ref cost my team the game, based on one call, when the game is 60 minutes long (in hockey anyhow) and my team made many mistakes (from a missed pass, to a "missed" shot) just seems plain silly. Likewise I don't assign blame to my team, because "that's life".

I've just wondered if people who have these expectations, I'd say out of whack expectations, do they have these expectations in the rest of their life? Do they get bent out of shape when it's their spouse, children, or other family? Do they call and cancel their cable service if they have no cable and they miss their team's game?

"Relax, it's just a game" people.

UMD Weekend

UMD is at home this weekend to play Lake Superior State tonight and Northern Michigan tomorrow night. It's the Superior Showcase tournament and Michigan Tech is in it as well, playing LSSU and NMU in the opposite order UMD is.

I myself will not be going up. Since our tickets are for Saturday, we got Sunday's game ticket. Since Sunday is an evening game, not a day game, I would have had to go home very late or take Monday off. I'm out of vacation days, for a very good reason ("Little Miss" Kaelyn being born) so no UMD weekend for me. It sure would have been nice to see Northern Michigan, I was hoping they were going to be the team coming into the WCHA with Bemidji, but Oh-blah-dee, Oh-blah-dah life goes on.

Monday

There's two huge games at the Metrodome in the next two days. Vikes against the Packers tonight. I'm so excited about this game that I'm planning on not even watching highlights of it. Twins have a sort-of playoff game tomorrow night. I'm sort-of excited, but not enough to actually watch the game, since baseball is like watching paint drying on a wall (you can leave the room, come back and almost nothing has changed).

UMD took care of BC (not THAT BC, I mean the Canadian version) over the weekend, winning 4-0. The Dogs looked fairly good. They held onto the puck quite well and generally didn't have that many problems. Well, except the second period when BC looked fairly dangerous. UMD did have a couple of illegal extra player penalties though.

Other things:
- Very impressive, there were almost 4 complete UMD student sections
- Sieve to the band, who were awol.
- UMD played Hjelle for half the game (31:00) and Reitter half (29:00).
- The colors of the BC jerseys looked great, but the logo on the front looked severely washed out.

UND logo and nickname

Warning, lengthy post ahead.

There has been a bunch of stuff going on in the last week concerning the University of North Dakota and their logo/nickname situation, what with the deadline imposed by the ND Board of Education approaching.   Goon's World of course has the coverage:

There has been plenty of protesting going on (link 1)
The ND BOE has extended the deadline at least 30 days (link 2)
Ron Thunderhorse has been replaced on the Standing Rock Tribal leadership (link 3)

I haven't talked about my positions on this in quite a while and my positions have changed slightly.  There's my political positions and my personal feelings.

Politically I have nothing against anything that has happened so far.   In every case, everything that has happened (as far as I can tell) has been people (the protesters) or organizations (NCAA, ND Board of Education, Univ of North Dakota) using their freedoms.  All the affiliations are voluntary ones. 

I think what I said before is that I'm okay with UND giving up the Fighting Sioux name if they can't get tribal approval.  If that's the case I should revise;  I'm okay with UND giving up the Fighting Sioux name or keeping the Fighting Sioux name, if all parties are not forced.  Short of any one of the parties holding a gun to someone else's head (or similarly, getting the government involved and the government holding a gun to any of the parties heads) or something similar to that, no one is forcing anyone to do anything.   They can choose to do whatever they want and face the consequences of their decision.  The consequences could be major depending on the decision, like if UND stands their ground they may have to give up being a state funded school and/or have to leave the NCAA.

Now personally, I have no problem with UND being the Fighting Sioux. I have no problem with the use of the term Fighting Sioux, because neither "Fighting" nor "Sioux" are offensive terms  (unlike "redskin" which is offensive) by themselves and them together isn't offensive.  I have no problem with the Fighting Sioux logo, because it was designed by a Native American artist, who allowed the school to use the logo.

The Fighting Sioux has always seemed to me to be done respectfully.  The nickname Fighting Sioux, the logos, the jerseys, and other things have always to me been one of the most well done and greatest in the country. 

If a school was to become the "Fighting Caucasians", "Fighting Whites", "Fighting Honkies", or something similar and do it similar to the way UND has done I would have no problems with it.  It's all about context, which is why I disagree with the NCAA's original "all Native American" nicknames are offensive" policy.

I've never seen fans, students, players, or coaches being racist.  Then again, if there were a couple of racists in the Fighting Sioux fans I would not say the school should stop being the Fighting Sioux.  If the school was using a nickname or logo that I consider to be racist, such as the Cleveland Indian's Chief Wahoo, I'd be against them using it.  Depending on circumstances and such I'd even consider protesting against them.

Am I excited that the Standing Rock Tribe voted in a new leader who is apparently pro UND being the Fighting Sioux?  You bet I am.  Do I think that the protesters should stop?  Certainly not.  They have the right to feel UND using the Sioux name is racist and have the right to protest against UND.  Do I think I could be wrong and the school actually is using the nickname and logo in a racist way?   Certainly, there might be other things about the University of North Dakota that I don't know about.

So, in summary, at this time I can not disagree with the University of North Dakota being the Fighting Sioux.  I can't disagree with them personally or politically.

Link 1:  http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/2009/09/indian-activists-protest-sioux-logo.html
Link 2:  http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/2009/10/state-board-of-higher-education-has.html
Link 3:  http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-standing-rock-tribal-chairman.html

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Per Inside College Hockey, UMD has the 2nd best incoming defender in the nation (Link 1), Dylan Olsen from Camrose of the AJHL. He's listed second behind Eden Prairie's Nick Leddy who decided to........ well, let's just say he decided to stay close to home.

InCH also listed UMD's incoming class as being the 11th best in the nation (link 2). Three WCHA teams are rated above them and Wisconsin is in the spot right behind them.

Link 1: http://www.insidecollegehockey.com/7Archives/Features/0910/recruitsdef_0801.htm
Link 2: http://www.insidecollegehockey.com/7Archives/Features/0910/recruitsteam_0801.htm