Twelve in a Row—Los Angeles Clippers at Cleveland Cavaliers: Behind the Box Score
February 6, 2015Browns may kick the tires on Michael Oher
February 6, 2015It’s Friday, which means it’s my time to dominate your eyeballs with my silly thoughts on lots of weird topics. Thanks as always for reading and now here it goes…
In terms of actual football, the Browns are probably no worse off…
Even despite all that I’ve had to write about the Browns and how they’ve dominated bad news, when you really boil it down to football, this team might be just fine. Yes, they’re at risk of losing a draft pick for their texting violation, but that’s just a fact of the investigation. It’s one of the potential outcomes. Still, we have no idea if the Browns did commit a violation and if so whether or not it was blatant and worthy of the harshest punishments.
As for the other stuff about execs watching tape and interfering in football matters, that’s potentially troubling for sure. Still, I can’t go back on what I’ve said about Alec Scheiner continually since he was hired and since I heard him speak at MIT’s Sloan conference based on some anonymous reporting two years later. That’s not to say Jason La Canfora or his sources are lying either, but as with all reports, these things are a game of telephone and what finally hits the transcript isn’t exactly always indicative of what you might have perceived with your own eyeballs.
I went back and re-read what I wrote about hearing Alec Scheiner say in those panels at Sloan.
During the conference this weekend, despite being a champion of advanced analytics, Alec Scheiner made sure to tell everyone that he isn’t a math expert, as he self-identified as “just a lawyer.” He is the President of the Browns, but he was insistent that adoption of analytics needs to be subtle and most likely on a project-by-project basis. So more likely than anything, there could be some stats done on a specific position group to give some guidance on the pool and maybe eliminate some candidates. Again, I’m just guessing, but I am truly led to believe it is a lot of supplemental info to try to limit mistakes and boost decision-making confidence.
And now I’m to believe that Alec Scheiner and the Browns business guys are running roughshod over the Browns coaching staff? It’s possible and La Canfora’s painting is an ugly picture of Berea, but I’m going to withhold a smidge of judgment based on what I think I thought I knew before the last week’s ugly headlines hit.
In the end, the Browns have their defensive head coach coming back for another year with a defense I’m excited about. Regardless of his future plans, Alex Mack will be back for 2015 in a Browns uniform. The Browns have tons of cap space in order to get better. Plus, even if they lack stability on the offensive side of the ball, they will have it on the defensive side. Almost no team ever has complete stability from year to year.
Glass half full…
Your car’s navigation system stinks…
In this country over the past 20 years, we’ve seen many technological races that push innovation like crazy. We’ve seen it in all phases of the electronics and computing industries. Simply look at the first iPod and look at any of the smartphones that exist between Apple and Android and it’s simply amazing how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time. Now, take a look at the electronics in your car.
I’m a big fan of the integrated navigation in a lot of ways. I was an early adopter of it and it’s just one of those things where once you have it, it’s really hard to go back. I remember when I first got it, being just amazed that I could leave the Cleveland area for Cape Cod and that it would tell me exactly how to go and an approximate amount of time it would take to get there. It’s so easy to take it for granted and be some kind of complainer even with how amazing the world is, but this isn’t one of those times. The fact is that car navigation systems are a strange ecosystem of proprietary, sluggish technology that just hasn’t kept up with what we know the world can produce in terms of a computing experience. The Verge covered it perfectly.
Subaru recently posted a YouTube video touting Starlink, the company’s in-house navigation and entertainment system. You’d think they’d make it look good; companies are typically in the business of making their products seem like pure, unfiltered magic. Not Subaru, which is apparently content to let its in-dash electronics trainwreck over the course of one minute, 43 seconds.
And here’s the Subaru commercial they were making fun of.
And they’re absolutely correct. The height of delusion is not only being behind the race, but pretending you’re actually ahead and making an ass of yourself. The car companies will catch up at some point. And it might be cost-effective too once they realize all they need to do is put in a relatively dumb display and let phones drive all the actual functionality.
Jimmy Fallon is an all-time great already…
I’m ripping off myself from my own Facebook page a day later, but only because I want to share the sentiment. After seeing Jimmy Fallon’s Saved by the Bell reunion sketch, I said the following.
Jimmy Fallon not only can be trusted with the Tonight Show, there might not be a more perfect steward of that show and its budget. He has the kind of fun that makes the world live vicariously through him whether they want to or not.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
This one’s old school. Head’s up play to throw it off the keeper and take advantage. I hate seeing a keeper get clowned, but that’s just why keepers need to have a short memory.
These Knees hits 2015 hard…
I know this band a bit, so this is an ultimate homer pick, but I can’t help it. Steph Trivison and her band These Knees absolutely blew me away with the first song they released in 2015 called Alive. It’s big, poppy, anthemic and pretty. Gotta love it.
64 Comments
What’s the quote? Something like, no one ever went broke underestimating the American public? Seems more and more true every day.
haha. nice. like it or hate it, that movie – that scene – changed cinema forever, for the better.
I don’t think it’s the accent. It’s just they way they unapologetically admit to some perverse behavior with a wide grin and a wink that says, ‘Yeah, I’m a sleazebag, and I bet you wish you could be like me.’
But try doing that with any other accent! The accent provides the “you wish you could be like me” component. To Americans, for some reason, it sounds refined – and there’s just something about someone saying outrageous things with refinement. (But it is really just a small part. Gervais and Ferguson stand well enough on their own.)
Okay, now that you mention it, the British accent does convey an establishment-type maturity that contrasts very well with outlandish behavior, more so than an American accent does.
I can see you’ve given this a lot of thought. It’s nice to talk refined depravity with a fellow connoisseur.
Since I work for a British company, I will confirm the above, but not add to it.
it’s funny that the movie had so many true talking points and discussion to have, but they proved that it’s more important to have splashy animation/graphics that people would stare at on loop (I’m not complaining, I love Marvel movies).
Jimmy has a lot of famous friends for a reason. This is not an insult, but Jimmy is a gusher. He gushes about every single guest he has on the show. “So great”.
Let’s face it, famous people, nay people in general, love to be gushed over. I usually enjoy watching Jimmy’s show, but this fact does annoy me at times.
http://i.imgur.com/tBtTojh.gif
Ahhh, the masters. There’s stupid not funny (fart jokes, Mike Meyers) and then there’s stupid hilarious (Monty Python). Give me that sophisticated dead fish humor every time.
Just noticed how similar that is to your avatar.
edit: stolen
Hey, there’s always room for another face palm in Cleveland.
I got the “Moon and Tune” upgrade which my wife seemed to think we needed a Moonroof (Gotta keep em happy). If you factor in the moonroof, the cost of the navigation was 750 and it put my backup camera down on the display(instead of on rear view mirror) which I use to get inches away from another car since my truck is 6.5 foot bed. It would have been a harder decision if not for that though.
I would trade VMart for Swisher straight up right now.