Ouch! Yeah...I guess I heard that Oakley! ...I guess that's why they play the game! I'm waitin' now for the Vikings/Packers game with our "new" QB Christian Ponder!! I would've benched McNabb after game 2. Too plodding, inaccurate, & immobile. We'll probably lose, but at least we'll have more excitement @ at the QB position! Faron

love all chicago pro sports plus IU & UCF college sports. i grew up going to chicago cubs and bears games w/ my dad and he went w/ his dad :-) from my teens till i was 30 (moved to orlando then) i also added in Bulls and Blackhawks games too plus my alma mater Indiana Univ (bobby knight days). now my DH goes to UCF and they are an emerging big college, right now ranked #3 in size. my DH is not a sports fan (he's a sports widow actually lol) and does not understand what the importance of sports is to UCF. aside from the players and all that, the sports programs attract more students from all over the country, draw more support from alumni, brings in national contracts for equipment and national exposure on TV, which feeds the whole thing. all of it equates to more $$ for the university and inturn helps support education for all. i'm sure there are plenty of educational programs that would be cut if sports didn't bring in $$$. my DH's college of Engineering gets ALOT of $$$$ from Lockheed, Boeing, Siemens etc...i'm sure departments like art, literature, education etc...get nothing from private donors. two yrs ago UCF opened a huge new stadium which employs several hundred people yr round. last yr they opened a new arena for basketball which also hosts tons of concerts and shows year round. they paid off the arena's building costs in the very first yr! the arena also employs several hundred more employees. the orlando magic are just about to open a new arena, one of the largest & most expensive ever built. my DH has 2 nieces who work for the magic, make very good $$ and i was shocked to find out they employ 3000 people. several thousand construction people have been working on the arena for 2 yrs now. when that is done the workers switch over to building an art and concert center for Orlando adjacent to the arena, that opens in 2013. the construction of these buildings is very far reaching into the community. i have friends in horticulture who have provided all the plants, flowers and palms to the arena site. part of the magic deal to get permission for this building involved them building 2 or 3 new community rec and education centers thru out the city, so that adds to the jobs, money and enrichment of the city. ~ liz

The only sports I'm interested in are some of the events in the Summer or Winter Olympics, and being around only once every four years keeps them from wearing out their welcome. I do like March Madness, but mainly for the betting aspects -- I don't actually watch the games. If I did have to pick a pro sport, it might be basketball -- because all these guys are actually taller than I am, and it moves fast. Or maybe ice hockey, just to watch the skating, sound off, who cares who wins???! Rooting for a team only happens when I know at least one player, or have a personal connection to that player or players -- or if I'm rooting against known cheaters. This limits me to Little League, although I did (verbally, without watching the games) root for Joe Montana when he played with San Francisco -- hey, we shared the same college for most of the same years! I don't know enough about the players -- and don't need yet another hobby -- to pick teams for Fantasy Football.

" There seems to be a common theme surrounding ”control” with you. From the way you like your dogs trained, you’re in full control. ." I think you've found something that isn't there but I don't need to change your view. As far as dogs go, the options are not black and white, one or the other "trained" or "unruly and untrained". It's nuanced like everything else, the middle ground should be the target. The parents of one of my kid's in-laws don't acknowledge the need to teach dogs basic manners (just like kids) so when they open the front door, the dogs run out and they don't always come back when called. They jump on people and the male sometimes grabs legs and does the you know what. They grab food from the kitchen counter and dining room table. In sum - they're a mess, I hate going to that house. Nice people but clueless about dogs. Fortunately, their offspring who is my kid in-law has the right attitude and the two dogs in that house were properly trained and are wonderfully well-behaved. As far as other things, opinions included, I think you're off the mark. When an opinion seems to be misdirected or in need of more or better information, that I've come upon, I share it. Just like the few here whose views I suspect you disagree with who will quote Fox News or other biased outlets, you may think to yourself - "why don't they have better information sources?." Sometimes people reject info that challenges a belief they want to hold onto. Sometimes they simply don't want to hear more. That's fine. Opinions - it may seem otherwise at times, I respect thoughtful, informed opinions. I don't respect propagandized comments that seem like tired slogans in other forms. The recent reference to Ford Pintos by someone as an example of widespread corporate malfeasance made me spit out the water I was drinking. You know Bernie what's his name. I see him as a cartoon character depicting what's wrong with his party. His views, slogans, and issues got set in concrete in the 1960s and he's been singing the same songs ever since. The only things that have changed is that he has less hair now and what's there is no longer dark.