Rang de Basanti from the film Rang de Basanti (2006)
Teri Mehfil Mein from the film Mughal-e-Azam (1960)
Rob Van Dam wins the WWE Championship at One Night Stand (2006)
CM Punk wins the World Heavyweight Championship (2008)
Notice
The blog and contents of the entire greeklish.org site represent the personal views of the site's authors. The views expressed on these pages are the views of the authors alone and are not the views of our employers or of any organizations with which we are affiliated.
Copyrighted quotes and images obtained from third party web sites are used under the terms of Fair Use. Some materials used by greeklish.org are in the public domain.
Family photos are intended for viewing on this web site and should not be reproduced or used elsewhere without the permission of the owners and operators of greeklish.org.
My wrestling obsession has pretty much killed my interest in this year's football season, but because I live so close to Cincinnati, even though I'm not following day-to-day NFL news, it's pretty hard to ignore the ups and downs of the Bengals. I'm not even really that much of a Bengals fan, truth be told. But I grew up listening to Cincinnati radio and even though I think talk radio is generally a pretty evil medium, I still find myself listening to 700 WLW now and again, especially when I am tired of the CDs in my car.
Most people in southwestern Ohio know that the Bengals are in the midst of a season that is less than stellar. You really don't need talk radio or local news to have some degree of awareness about the situation. But it is always amazing to see how quickly the "die hard" Bengals fans become fickle and spiteful. And from there, it's a short trip to mob-rule insanity when the bloodlust of Cinci fans kicks in and they embark on the frenzied hunt for a scapegoat. Remember, we're talking about an area that recently contemplated filing a civil suit against their NFL team for breach of contract when the Bengals allegedly failed to produce a "competitive" sports team (If you don't live in Ohio and you find this hard to believe, trust me on this...I couldn't make it up if I tried).
So this year's scapegoat was almost Coach Marvin Lewis. Almost. But in recent weeks, it's been Chad Johnson on the bottom of the dog pile. To Johnson's credit, he has responded by totally boycotting the local Cinci media and letting Carson Palmer do the talking at post-game shows. Good for him. Really...I was listening to a WLW sports talk show a couple weekends ago and it seemed like a contest amongst the show's callers to prove which one of them hated Johnson the most. People were calling in saying stuff like, "Well, I've never been a fan of Chad...I've never liked him from the beginning..." and insisting that he was bringing the team town, begging for him to be benched, cut traded and the like. What a bunch of crap. And the talking heads don't contribute much other than to fan the flames and keep the smack-talking throngs of sports talk callers incensed and venomous.
So what happened yesterday? Johnson became the all-time receptions leader for the Bengals with 12 catches on the day for over 100 yards. Three of his receptions were touchdowns. And what are the fair-weathered Johnson-hating Bengals "faithful" saying today? Most of them are still hung over from celebrating, I'm sure...And they're thanking their lucky stars for Ocho Cinco once again. Until the next loss, that is.
A great player like Chad Johnson deserves better than anything the perpetually angry fans of Cincinnati can offer. He is – much like Randy Moss – one of the greatest football players of my generation. And one day – much like Randy Moss – he might finally pick up and move to another team where he will find the respect he deserves. Related Reading Radio drinking games
How about that win by the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night! What a game! And to think that just a few years ago Neil Rackers
was the shame of Cincinnati! All in all, it was pretty exciting
and the fact that the game was played in Mexico City made it even more
interesting.
Arizona QB Josh McCown
was miked for sound by ESPN and the results were rather intriguing.
ESPN ran highlights from McCown's audio later in the evening. One of
the sound bites featured McCown celebrating after a touchdown. He
pointed up to the sky and yelled, "Thank you God...Thank you
Jesus!" The very next clip featured McCown rallying the Cards on
the sideline, yelling: "Step on their throats! STEP ON THEIR
THROATS!" What an interesting dichotomy, no?
Back to the prayer thing...A few years back, I had the distinct pleasure of attending a presentation by Albert Ellis,
a true pioneer in the areas of psychology and psychotherapy.
Ellis is a self-described probabilistic athiest and on the day of the
workshop that I was attending, some other folks in attendance clearly
wanted to pick a fight with Ellis on the matter of religion. Now, Doc
Ellis put up with the jabs and quips for as long as he could, until he
had enough. At that point, the 80-odd year-old Ellis closed his
eyes and yelled, "If there is a God, he doesn't give a shit!".
I'm not sure if Dr. Ellis was referring specifically to football or
about life in general, but I sure wish Josh McCown had been
there. How is it that prayers can guide a football into the hands
of a wide receiver, but they can't stop wars, hurricanes, and disease?
Well,
let's just get this out of the way...I am still a fan of pro football.
(Maybe I should have filed this under “True Confessions.”) I don’t
follow any other sports (college or pro) with much enthusiasm or any
regularity. Pro football is different, though...It’s just
something that I have never been able to shake. It’s kind of like
those weird musical interests that I have mentioned before. I
just never grew out of my love for the game. There have been
times in which my interest was fleeting, but eventually the old excitement always kicks back in. For all of my life, the “home
team” has been the Cincinnati Bengals. When I was really little,
I was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I’m not exactly sure how or why
this was the case, but since the Steelers and the Bengals were division
rivals, I was never really one to root for the “home team.”
Around the late 1980's, I became interested in some other teams,
including the Minnesota Vikings and the Houston Oilers.
These are perennial “hard luck teams.” For a while there, it
seemed like every year, they would make it to the top of their
divisions only to have their hopes dashed in the post-season. The
1992 Oilers were one of my favorite teams of all time and it’s still
agonizing to watch highlight films from their loss to the Buffalo Bills
in the ‘92 AFC championship game. Even though the Oilers are now
defunct, I still carry a torch for them. I have a bunch of Oilers
memorabilia in my office and about once a week, a visitor says, “So,
are you an Oilers fan?” My response is typically a sigh followed
by, “Well, I was an Oilers fan...” Nowadays, the Oilers are the
Tennessee Titans and seeing as how their roster still boasts a few
Oilers vets, the Titans are still on my favorites list.
The Vikings are certainly set to
be a hard luck team again this year, although this time around, it
looks like they’ll be hard-pressed to even make it to the
post-season. Yesterday was one of the most abysmal drubbings that
I have ever seen the Vikings take. And it was all at the hands
of...the Bengals? Y’know, I have never really been excited about
a Bengals season until this year. It looks like things might be
coming together for them. The city of Cincinnati could sure use
something to be proud of for a change. Remember the “World League of
American Football" back in 1991? If I recall correctly, these
folks wre the first group to put “helmet cams” in the helmets of
quarterbacks and other players. The Orlando Thunder was my
team. WLAF was way cooler than the XFL.
My wrestling obsession has pretty much killed my interest in this year's football season, but because I live so close to Cincinnati, even though I'm not following day-to-day NFL news, it's pretty hard to ignore the ups and downs of the Bengals. I'm not even really that much of a Bengals fan, truth be told. But I grew up listening to Cincinnati radio and even though I think talk radio is generally a pretty evil medium, I still find myself listening to 700 WLW now and again, especially when I am tired of the CDs in my car. 
