Man Talk

I'm sorry, but I had to put this up to bump the poetry fest. I know Kathy's a "girly-girl" who likes all these sorts of fru-fru things, but she also possesses an appreciation of all things testosterone-soaked (with some minor exceptions), so I'm confident that she's happy with my football updates. Until she shows up at my door with a lead pipe & a blowtorch, I'll assume that my attempts to "butch things up" at Cakeeater Central are welcome.

ISU won again last night, but it was closer than it should have been. UNLV came into town as a 13 point dog, and ISU only managed to get 16 points on the board to manage a 6-point win. The ending was straight out of central casting. The officials were screwing the pooch all night (apparently, the Mountain West conference has hired Mary Mapes as their Q/C assurance supervisor) and they totally fouled up the last drive of the game. UNLV appeared to let the clock run out on a crucial 4th & 1 near their own 40, but the officials disregarded their own flag & stated that UNLV had called their last timeout (which I saw nobody call). The spots for UNLV were consistently generous all night, while ISU appeared to get the crappy end of the stick most of the time. In the last :07 of the game, the UNLV receiver appeared to fumble the ball into the hands of an ISU defender, but the officials allowed UNLV to run back to the line & spike the ball with :02 left on the clock. A ten-minute review followed this play, and the officials proceeded to mangle the rulebook & put :07 back on the clock while IGNORING the "spiking" play UNLV used to stop the clock. Once the game started again, UNLV took one last shot at the end zone, and their receiver caught the ball after the QB scrambled around 'til the clock ran out before throwing. The problem with that play? The receiver was at least one yard out of bounds when he caught the ball. The officials immediately ran for their locker room, with members of the UNLV coaching staff hot on their heels.

While the PA announcers were congratulating the victorious ISU team, the UNLV team proceeded to embark on the biggest display of poor sportsmanship since the 2000 Florida recount. Their players started CELEBRATING & making touchdown signs with their arms, while the coaching staff railed at the officials and the assembled media. The UNLV coach did manage to shake Coach McCarney's hand when he came over to the sidelines, but this didn't stop him from keeping his team on the sidelines for 20-30 minutes after the final gun sounded. He was acting like all he had to do was stomp his feet & hold his breath and the officials would come back out & declare his team the "REAL WINNERS". The behavior of the players was even worse. About half of them tore off their helmets & started taunting the crowd, and a few of them even went out to the ISU logo at midfield & threw down their helmets & stamped their feet on the logo. I understand that several players from this team transferred to UNLV after legal and/or attitude problems with their former programs, and unfortunately this shows in the way they behaved in our house last night. Maybe they should change their name to the UNLV Leper Colony.

No matter how ugly the game was, we're still 2-0. Next up: Iowa.