Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Day Has Come

A little bit of background on this one - at the same time as they announced the Vs. deal after the lockout, Comcast said they would be launching the NHL Network "shortly." That was September 2005. Then details came out that they were contractually obligated to start it up by July 31, 2007. And nothing happened. A few weeks ago, a press release hit the wires announcing that some people in Eastern and Central PA would start receiving NHL Network on their Premium Digital Tier in mid-October. Today, however, the following shocked and excited me. Not the NFL part.

Cox Communications Northern Virginia Launches NFL Network in High Definition

              Cox to Also Launch Much-Anticipated NHL Network

HERNDON, Va., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Cox Communications Northern
Virginia announced today the launch of NFL Network HD. The network is now
available on Cox Cable channel 718 on the Digital Sports & Info Tier for
Fairfax County and Fredericksburg-area customers with HD set-top boxes. NFL
Network offers more high definition programming than ever before, including
major events such as Super Bowl Week, AFC and NFC Championship Week, and
the NFL Draft, all presented in stunning high-definition.
"Our valued customers have made it clear to us that they want more
high- definition programming, which is why we continue to aggressively add
to our suite of HD content," said Janet Barnard, vice president and region
manager for Cox Northern Virginia. "We're thrilled to offer NFL Network HD,
which we believe will make being a football fan more enjoyable and
compelling than ever."
In addition to a variety of exclusive programming, the following eight
primetime regular season games will be featured on NFL Network HD:
-- Colts at Falcons Thursday, Nov. 22, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
-- Packers at Cowboys Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
-- Bears at Redskins Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
-- Broncos at Texans Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
-- Bengals at 49ers Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
-- Steelers at Rams Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
-- Cowboys at Panthers Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
-- Patriots at Giants Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007 at 8:15 PM ET
Effective October 30, Cox will also launch the NHL Network, featuring
24- hour hockey coverage including live games. The network's signature show
-- NHL On The Fly -- offers hockey fans exclusive coverage of each game,
including press conferences, expert analysis, and special highlights from
the NHL All- Star Game, NHL Stanley Cup Final and NHL Entry Draft. NHL
Network will be offered on channel 248 of the Digital Sports and Info tier
for Fairfax County and Fredericksburg-area customers.
About Cox Communications:
Cox Communications is a multi-service broadband communications and
entertainment company with more than 6 million total residential and
commercial customers. The third-largest cable television company in the
United States, Cox offers an array of advanced digital video, high-speed
Internet and telephony services over its own nationwide IP network, as well
as integrated wireless services in affiliation with Sprint. Cox Business
Services is a full-service, facilities-based provider of communications
solutions for commercial customers, providing high-speed Internet, voice
and long distance services, as well as data and video transport services
for small to large-sized businesses. Cox Media offers national and local
cable advertising in traditional spot and new media formats, along with
promotional opportunities and production services. Cox Communications
wholly owns and operates the Travel Channel. More information about the
services of Cox Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox
Enterprises, is available at http://www.cox.com,
http://www.coxbusiness.com, and http://www.coxmedia.com.

SOURCE Cox Communications Northern Virginia


-The odds that we would get this in Redskin/NASCAR country before the Upper Midwest and New England seemed to be zero. The odds that we would get it AT ALL seemed to be close to zero. But Cox shocked me. I've heard the negatives.

"It's not worth the hype."
"Not worth the extra money."
"Not very many live games."
And so on.

The Canadian NHL Network, which is expected to provide almost all of the content to the US version, has set the following schedule for this season's televised games: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl_network/feature/?fid=10435. And that's OK with me. I'll be sending a polite email to Cox now.

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Around the Great Lakes - News edition

The Union

The strike is over. Details on the settlement will come out over the next few hours and days, but everyone's back to work. Well, everyone except those who have recently been laid off/RIFed by GM. it has become evident that the gulf between the state of Michigan and the rest of the country is widening. Reality is becoming skewed further and further as the state falls further and further from relevancy in the 21st century. Depending on who you believe, unemployment tops 10 percent in most of the major cities. The official numbers are lower, but not by much, and they're still 150 percent above the national average.

Interviews by local union presidents in major media outlets this week have thrust the disconnect in the face of the entire nation for the first time. A lot of these people really believe that it is the responsibility of the Big Three to guarantee jobs to them for the rest of their working lives and to guarantee jobs to as many members of the next generation as want them. This is bad. Most of the rest of the country, and most of the rest of the world, understands that this is simply unrealistic. Those corporations owe their employees very little. A safe workplace, yes. Good benefits, not owed, but should be expected by workers. That means low copays at the doctor's office and some vacation days, not employment for life. Japan nearly collapsed economically when lifetime employment started to end, and it responded. It responded in Japan's way, which won't happen in Michigan, but it responded. This has never happened in Michigan. The auto industry, and the state, wait for the next bailout to sustain them temporarily.

So how will things change? First and foremost must be education. Take advantage of those benefits. Go get a college degree. You might have to move. This happened to my family in the early 90s and we adapted. My dad worked for an automotive engineering company (as an engineer, he wasn't unionized). We moved, and we're better for it. Not everyone has to do these things. I think the people who suggest that the Big Three are done and might as well go away are crazy. There's a place for them, and a large number of their workers, in the American economy. But some people will have to adapt.

Second, the companies must diversify. Ford has actually done a decent job of this. They have an aerospace division. International partnerships need to be looked at as a real source of revenue, not just something to complement North American operations.

Third, look to the future. My wife and I will be buying a vehicle in the next year. We're under 30, upper-middle class, living in the inner suburbs of a major city with one child. Fairly typical people. And there is exactly one American car we'd consider buying right now - the Saturn Aura Green Line. We own one now - it's a 2001 Saturn. We don't really want an SUV or minivan - they're not practical for the way we drive or the places we drive. So we're quite limited. Ethanol is a boondoggle. Clear-cutting forests to grow surplus corn for ethanol is a bad plan.

So there you go. Pay attention. Michigan is in trouble. One of these days, it will be time to let go, and things will get really bad. And that's sad. But it's coming.

Around the Great Lakes - Sports edition

I feel almost as if this should be two posts, one serious and one not. But it's all Chicago/Detroit stuff and it all fits together in some weird way. The two big sports stories this morning in my world come out of Chicago.

Last of the Old School
First and foremost, Bill Wirtz, the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks, passed away this morning. The Blackhawks have been a complete disaster for most of my lifetime. With the exception of the 1992 Finals appearance, they've been either slightly above average or terrible over the last quarter-century. Kind of like the Atlanta Hawks of the NHL, except the Blackhawks had some glory days long ago. Wirtz's legacy will probably be the move into United Center and the total lack of a local TV contract over the last several years. Both of these are/were sad situations. I will say that the United Center is a great place for basketball. The Bulls have truly made it their home over the course of its existence and it certainly makes for a better TV game than the Stadium did. But as a kid, I was a die-hard Wings fan and those divisional games against the Hawks were epic. Chicago Stadium was a big part of that. The noise, the goal siren, the old-style cages for the goal judges. The 1991 All-Star Game. Denis Savard, Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham, Al Secord, Doug Wilson, and on and on. United Center just isn't the same.

No announcement has been made about control of the franchise. This may seem like a callous statement five hours after Mr Wirtz's death, but the season starts in a week and the team appears (sort of) ready for prime time, with a slew of young talent and some pretty decent off-season acquisitions. Mr Wirtz was one of the last people from the old NHL to remain involved with the game. The post-expansion generation is nearly gone, a bizarre thought for those of us who grew up with the system firmly in place, seemingly until the end of time.

Or-ton! Or-ton!
It appears the majority of Bears fans have received an early Christmas present: Brian Griese is your new quarterback. Hail to the victors. Except he's facing nearly an identical situation to the one Rex did in 2005 when he came back from injury. His reign as starter is so eagerly anticipated that it's plainly obvious that things will not go well. To win the division, the Bears need to win at least 11 games. That means 10-3 from here on out. Quick rundown on what needs to happen to make 11-5 a reality:

1. Cedric Benson can't fumble, can't average 2.6 yards per carry, and has to be productive without a change of pace back to set up his running "style."
2. The defense has to stay healthy. Pretty much everyone. That's going well.
3. Griese has to play like a future Hall of Famer.

Write it down: you will see Kyle Orton in significant game action by Thanksgiving.

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Monday, September 24, 2007

On Rex and Big Z

The Hopeless?

Well, it's that time of year again. Week 3 has passed in the NFL and the world thinks they know everything there is to know about every team in the league. Except last year at this time, the Bears had outscored their opponents by something like 468-3 and people were talking about 16-0. Seriously. Deadspin is, well, Deadspin, but they've cast their vote. I have been a Rex defender (and a Lloyd Carr defender - I may be the most hated man in America), but it's getting tough. Until you really think about the illustrious history of Chicago Bears' quarterbacks.

Check out the list of the Bears' leading passers here. I would venture a guess that most people can't remember the first names of most of those guys. Here's some help. KORDELL Stewart. JIM Miller. CADE McNown. SHANE Matthews. ERIK Kramer. DAVE Krieg. STEVE Walsh. JIM Harbaugh. MIKE Tomczak. And the one everybody probably remembers, Jim McMahon. Here's the problem: Mr Grossman was supposed to be the future of the franchise. Remember 2005? Rex was ready to go for the last four games of the season and Orton was still the starter for two of those, leaving Bears fans up in arms. What was Lovie thinking, right? This Grossman kid could throw for 250 yards in a hurricane! Turns out he's not so good in bad weather. Or against average or better pass defenses. Or when he's not in the shotgun. Combine these scenarios, and we're talking about 70-80 percent of the time. There were even very good Rex moments last night. The first drive after the Cowboys made it 17-10, Rex threw about three darts in a row, and I thought he was ready to roll. But he wasn't. It was a bad day for the Bears.

When you throw in the fact that Donovan McNabb had a great day, times are tough. McNabb needs to be himself. That is, a one-man team with no help who gets blamed for everything and run out of Philadelphia. Then the Bears can pick him up and he can come back to his hometown, save the day, and the Bears win five Super Bowls in a row, while Rex goes and coaches some high school team in Georgia (an aside: This is probably Rex's next step. The media has devoured him. I can't think of any way for him to stay in the NFL and be productive. It's really, really sad. he's not that bad of a QB.).

Many of you read that last paragraph and thought, "Wow. This guy is delusional." Unless you're a Bears fan. This is an actual, viable plan to most of us. I feel bad for Rex. There's no way any normal human being could put up with this much crap and still go out there every week. He must be pretty tough mentally. He hasn't had a single confrontation with anyone in the media (and Jay Mariotti works in his city), he hasn't lashed out on camera, he hasn't blamed anyone but himself, you could go on and on. I wish him well in whatever he decides to do. He needs to think about himself for a minute and get out before things get even worse. That said, I've seen a lot of Brian Griese. Remember, I'm a Michigan fan. Brian Griese was a great QB in college. In the NFL, he's been great to bad, depending on the week. Read those last two sentences again, everybody.

...And the hope!

The Cubs, meanwhile, are playing like it's June all over again. Z appears to be back. The final home game of the regular season yesterday was a beautiful thing to watch. People know this is a playoff team, and I think they can beat any team in the NL. Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, and Marshall has to be the playoff rotation. Marquis should be elsewhere. Maybe the bullpen, maybe a beach somewhere, but certainly not in the rotation. Are they a team of destiny? Probably not, but I don't see how they'll lose to any of the other NL playoff teams. San Diego is a fairly similar team, Arizona is inconsistent and has a weak back end of their rotation, and the Mets don't appear to be playing the same sport as their opponents lately.

While they haven't clinched yet, it seems certain. The Brewers are back, though. This should be a great rivalry for the next 3-5 years. And it's nice to see Craig Monroe get another postseason appearance.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The September 11 post

I've never been particularly patriotic. I don't think I ever will be. But I feel the need to write something about what happened six years ago today. I think there are a few events throughout history that are world-changing. When these happen, people alive at that moment know immediately that the world is different. September 11, 2001 was one of those times.

What I'll remember most about that day is the confusion and the uncertainty. We live in a very certain world, especially since widespread use of the Internet became common. We have instant access to whatever information we want. The Drudge Report homepage crashed the morning of September 11. A page that normally saw 2 million visitors per day crashed. My cell phone was instantly disabled because of overloaded phone circuits and then by Virginia emergency managers in case they needed the voice bandwidth. People were literally running around the office spreading rumors about things that were important to them. Our government affairs people were saying there were car bombs on Capitol Hill. People from the West Coast were saying Los Angeles was next. And this is exactly what was supposed to happen. A scattered, every man for himself attitude that would make us vulnerable.

No one can deny that we've learned a lot in the past six years about emergency management. But we've also seen that no matter what you do, it's hard to protect yourselves. A hurricane pretty much eliminated a major American city just two years ago. Next month will mark five years since the snipers were at large and active in the DC area. Personally, those were some of the most terrifying and bizarre days I've spent on this Earth. I went to the Home Depot in Falls Church where one of the shootings happened tonight. This was close to me. Months ago, we saw a mass killing on a university campus. I'm not going to pine for the "old days," or say that things have changed. What's changed is that we know about everything now. Katie Couric was on the Virginia Tech campus less than 9 hours after the shootings. There are three ways to get news from a TV channel. Read the crawler, watch the face, or view the graphics. Or do all three. We can know everything.

We need to continue to remember September 11. Very few events in the history of this country can match the emotion tied to it, and it's odd that after just a few years, people are already trying to push it to the background. A few weeks after the attacks, I remember wondering when the day would come that I wouldn't think about September 11, or talk about it, or make reference to it in some way. It hasn't happened yet. And our world is changed. Forever.