First Wrighster Family Tailgate
I had a great time on Saturday watching My Ducks beat on the Bruins, but more importantly my Son & Nephew had the best time ever. It was so great watching them run around, playing football while we were tailgating, and watching them scream to the top of their lungs when the Ducks would do something good.
Oregon vs UCLA… Jones-Drew vs G3
Veggie Grill
It Was all Good 2 Seconds Ago.
Damn Phone… Ring!!!
Being a free agent after the season starts is like going out on a great first date and sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring…. And waiting… And waiting…. Trying to figure out if anything went wrong…. Calling her friends to see what she said… Does she like you? Was she happy? How come she hasn’t called? So then you call her, voicemail. Damn!!! What now??? It’s okay, no biggie, you’re great, you guys had a great time, you made her laugh, you made her think, she’ll call. So you settle down, gather your thoughts, and formulate your plan so you are ready when she calls back.
Merriman, Nowitzki, and Me!!!
I woke up this morning to the news of Shawn Merriman being arrested and all I could do was shake my head in disappointment. Not so much at him but at us athletes in general. Sometimes we put ourselves in some really bad/volatile situations and wonder why we get in the predicaments we do. Sometimes we think we are invincible, but the reality is we are actually more vulnerable and have more at stake than the average person. How many of us have to get shot, robbed, killed, or arrested before we change our lifestyles? You would think the media exposure alone would cause us to make better decisions with our personal lives, but it doesn’t.
Am I pointing fingers? Yes. At everyone and myself. I have been places I shouldn’t have been, doing things I had no business doing. I have been involved with women I knew were “all bad” for me, but I was just “having fun” trying to date the hottest chicks possible. It’s hard to make mature decisions when you are young, on your own for the first time, with a pocketful of money and everything in the movies and music videos at your disposal, but it’s not a good excuse. When I was in college I did something stupid (1 of many things) and my parents were having a “talk” with me and my dad said “G you are tripping what are you thinking about, you are not making wise choices”. My mother said You are expecting him to make decisions like a 40 year old man. Now, years later, I sit back and understand what she was saying. I was being immature and stupid. I was making decisions with my other “head” and that didn’t stop in college. I know now what I was doing and wish more athletes would stop making the same dumb mistakes they see other athletes make and actually learn from their predecessors. When are we gonna stop thinking “I’m different and it won’t happen to me”. No you aren’t and yes it will!!
Honk If You Love the Ducks!!!
I had a cool time in high school, but for the most part, I felt like a fish out of water, but then came the University of Oregon. I didn’t know what to expect when I got to Eugene. All I knew about the U of O was Nike, Prefontaine “Track Town USA”, and Duck football. I learned quickly what the 541 was all about. I loved my time in Eugene. My favorite breakfast spot GJ’s, our favorite bar Taylors , the U.I. dorm , the CASS and most importanly, Autzen stadium, the crowd, and the student section. AMAZING!!! I’ll never forget Apartment #90 which consisted of #1 aka SP aka Samie Parker, #2 aka O-S*#@*y aka Onterrio Smith and myself aka Rice-Daddy. Man, if those walls could talk, lol, but I’m glad they can’t. Oregon was totally different than any other place I had ever been into my whole life, but yet it was home. Some of my fondest memories are from my time in Eugene. College was truly some of the best years of my life to date. A lot of things in my life may change, but one thing that will remain the same is I will always and forever be an Oregon Duck!
The Steve McNair Talk
I stayed up late last night to watch my tivo’d episode of Dateline on Steve McNair: The Mysterious Death of a Titan. Eddie George, a former longtime teammate of McNair, gave an interview about the situation. If you didn’t know anything about Eddie George before last night, outside of his football accolades, you had to have come away with a healthy respect for him. He was well-spoken, articulate, and most of all made a lot of sense!!! Whenever people find out that someone in the limelight (athletes, musicians, actors) has vices it always overshadows so much of their life and full body of work. They are looked at as a bad and even immoral person. McNair’s Pastor said it best ‘the money, fame, and attention gave him more access to his vices’. It was not just because he was a football player that he loved women but it was because he was a man. It is a lot harder to stay away from things when you have unlimited access to them. Many people have no clue what their vices are because they don’t have the resources to make their fantasies reality. Money does not change you. It simply magnifies the traits that are inside you and tendencies you already have.