there's something in the air...

... or in the water, or in the stars, or something... fight at the palace last friday, obviously. the one at clemson the next day. the high school brawl. yuk.

as much as i don't like artest (as anybody who's ever heard me even mention his name before knows), i really don't think he should have gotten the rest of the season off. stephen jackson was much scarier than artest was (he was ready to *go* the whole time, and i think he threw the first punch in the stands), and he only got 30 games. not to say that artest was less at fault; just comparing the severity of the suspensions. of course, now artest has all the promotion time he could ask for...

i think ben wallace's suspension was too long, too, but in his case, i think it might actually be a good thing. he's probably still got his emotions running high (both from the brawl and his recent family tragedy), and a few games off might help him a bit. from what i've read, he's not even travelling with the team right now anyway, since he can't go to the games. so it's probably some good time off for him, at home, with his family. except for the loss of huge amounts of money part. but, of course, considering how much he makes, it may not be that huge a loss to him... not that i would know either way...

artests's statements about that night are much better than wallace's, though that may reflect a difference in personality more than a difference in attitude toward the incident. artest, however fucks it all up with his shitty "oh, and pick up the new cd i produced..." bit. dude, we know you have a cd. you got in trouble for asking to promote it. stop poisoning your apologies with lines for gain.


and then there was our game. now, i know i have a horrible tendency to blame refs for being human, but this game... first downs were given more freely in one direction, while measurements were taken more often in the other. spotting was spotty. pass interference wasn't being called when it blatently happened, and called when it barely happened. my point of contention in this is... yes, they may be human, but when you're throwing late flags for one team's whining players and putting your hand in the other team's faces, there's something wrong. okay, so you didn't see the guy spit in his face... but do you see the spit on his face? oh, you still can't call it? then how can your colleague throw a flag on a play he didn't think merited one until the player threw a tantrum in front of him? apparently we're pleading our case to the wrong ref 'cause the one on the other side of the field (side, not end) seems happy to listen to unfounded claims.

the reality of the situation is that a college field is still somewhat of a playground. you don't have enough teachers to watch every kid, every minute. cameras don't catch everything. i would be surprised of the player (whoever he was) gets any sort of punishment for spitting in another player's face. but we knew what he did. and then our d showed them what happens when you piss off hokies, even in the red zone.

... if only we didn't have to be mad to do things like that...

***

i'd never heard the word "coldcocked" until the incident on friday. now i've heard it and seen it so much, i wonder if it's going to be the new "from downtown"-type in-phrase. this one, i think, came from jim gray, not bill walton.

got my firmware updated over the break. hope this solves some things. one thing i've noticed is that the volume out the earpiece seems to be much louder. might just be my imagination, but i'm not complaining =]