phony

Rudderless . . .

Words cannot express the depth or sincerity of my condolences . . .

Daniel Day-Lewis: There Will Be Blood Joaquin Phoenix: The Master Gary Oldman: Sid and Nancy; JFK; The Professional Marcello Mastrioanni: 8 ½ Marlon Brando: A Streetcar Named Desire Peter O’Toole: Lawrence of Arabia David Thewlis: Naked Max Von Sydow: The Seventh Seal Klaus Kinski: Aguirre, Wrath of God Dennis Hopper: Blue Velvet John Hurt: The Elephant Man Javier Bardem: No Country For Old Men Jack Nicholson: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest; Chinatown; The Shining Ralph Fiennes: Schindler’s List Al Pacino: Dog Day Afternoon; The Godfather Robert DeNiro: Raging Bull; Taxi Driver Paul Newman: Cool Hand Luke Tom Hanks: Philadelphia Christian Bale: Empire of the Sun; Rescue Dawn Bruno S: Stroszek; The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser Jeffrey Wright: Ride with the Devil Michael Fassbender: Hunger; Shame Robert Mitchum: The Night of the Hunter Samuel L. Jackson: Pulp Fiction Denzel Washington: He Got Game Clint Eastwood: The Man With No Name trilogy; Unforgiven Tom Hardy: Bronson Sean Penn: Dead Man Walking Montgomery Clift: From Here to Eternity Burt Lancaster: From Here to Eternity Eric Bana: Chopper Ben Kingsley: Sexy Beast Viggo Mortensen: Eastern Promises Anatoli Solonitsyn: Andrei Rublev Warren Beatty: Bonnie and Clyde; McCabe & Mrs. Miller Jeff Bridges: The Big Lebowski Steve Buscemi: Fargo George C. Scott: Patton Peter Sellers: Dr. Strangelove; Lolita; The Pink Panther films Ryan Gosling: Half Nelson Edward Norton: American History X; 25th Hour; Primal Fear Peter Greene: Clean, Shaven Stellen Skarsgaard: Insomnia Peter Lorre: M Orson Welles: Citizen Kane; The Third Man Nicolas Cage: Wild at Heart; Bad Lieutenant – Port of Call, New Orleans Harvey Keitel: Taxi Driver; Bad Lieutenant; The Piano Martin Sheen: Apocalypse Now; Badlands Catherine Deneuve: Repulsion/Belle du Jour Anna Mangiani: Rome, Open City; Mamma Roma Naomi Watts: 21 Grams; Mulholland Drive Laura Dern: Inland Empire Shelly Duvall: The Shining; 3 Women Faye Dunaway: Bonnie and Clyde Julianna Moore: Boogie Nights Isabelle Huppert: The Piano Teacher Maria Falconetti: The Passion of Joan of Arc Kate Winslet: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Sigourney Weaver: Alien; Aliens Charlize Theron: Monster Natalie Portman: Black Swan Julie Christie: McCabe & Mrs. Miller Marilyn Monroe: Some Like It Hot Emily Watson: Breaking the Waves Deborah Kerr: From Here to Eternity; Black Narcissus Liv Ullman: Persona; Scenes from a Marriage Bibi Andersson: Persona Ingrid Thulin: The Silence Gunnel Lindblom: The Silence Holly Hunter: The Piano Sissy Spacek: 3 Women; Badlands Sally Kellerman: M*A*S*H

If the speculation is true, and ND winds up releasing EV from his LOI after he transfers to UCLA, then leaking that information early could be interpreted as a shrewd bit of gamesmanship on the part of the Vanderdoes family . . .

Notre Dame football will never again be a serious contender for a National Championship. Whatever challenges are posed by the moral bankruptcy of big time college football are exacerbated by the university itself: disagreeable geographic location, a vast, and constantly widening, cultural divide between the tenets of the university and many prospective recruits, impatient or out-of-touch alumni who still cling to the illusion that Notre Dame can bend the colossus of CFB to its will, archaic, embarrassingly quaint attitudes about what currently defines a "student athlete", stringent academic standards that essentially eliminate large swathes of football rich recruiting areas, a stubborn refusal to oversign/redshirt/greyshirt/accept JUCO tranfers, high-minded attitudes toward honoring the scholarships of players who are medically incapable of playing football. What other team with serious, serious, year-in-year-out National Title aspirations can boast of all these self-imposed hurdles? Each one a symptom of the same over-arching disease which has crippled ND's football program for the last 25 years and will continue to be a drag anchor on any aspirations it may have for future football glory: a rigid adherence to an archaic philosophy of institutional exceptionalism instead of a progressive, realistic, adaptive approach to the challenges posed by an ever-commercializing, ethically-debased industry. Notre Dame is the problem. And since Notre Dame will never change, neither will its football team's woes. Sad. Sad and incredibly frustrating. Particularly considering the school owes such a considerable debt to not only its football program, but the literally millions of people who continue to faithfully support that program, win or lose, despite having no consanguineal connection to the school. We as fans deserve better . . .

[ame] [/ame] 15 seconds in Diaco delivers a fairly airtight argument as to why he's not ready for a head coaching gig at ND. Or any other big program for that matter . . .

Rocket, check you PM . . .

Uh uh, Bing. I’m sorry, but I’m seeing things 20/10 here. This team is nowhere near close to the point where their 2s are dogging at the heels of the 1s. And, with few exceptions, none of their 1s could suit up and play meaningful minutes on a team like Bama, LSU, or maybe Florida. I can think of three guys who maybe would have started on that Bama team: Tuitt, Nix, and Eifert. The rest? No way. I doubt there’s anybody else on ND’s 2-deep that would rate garbage time on Bama’s squad. You’re right, attrition at top-tier programs is something of a luxury, natural selection, the cream rising to the top. At Notre Dame it’s just another pitfall . . .

I understand your points, and to be honest, I myself subscribed to the “winning consistently” argument at one time. Until that nightmare back in January revealed that belief to be more of the same exceptionalist magical-thinking that’s hindered Notre Dame’s development for the last 25 years. This team went 12-1 last year and is still dealing with high-profile decommits and three transfers from kids who were widely considered to be part of the team’s immediate future and/or present-day success. What sense does it make to tout moral rectitude when the rest of the country operates by a code of ethics which are, at best, dubious, and at worst, outright scandalous? Look, I’m probably not like a lot of people here. I don’t unquestionably buy into the idea that ND is somehow inherently better or different than other schools. “God, Country, Notre Dame” isn’t an ethos to me, it’s just a catchphrase chiseled into some rock; a $3.00 bumper sticker, or a novelty t-shirt. Notch “Money” at the head of the triptych and maybe I’ll start giving it credence. Nor am I overcome by a reverential frisson whenever those “Fighting” promos run during halftime. I just want the game to come back on. Watching the championship game I got a good idea how the dinosaurs must have felt when they saw that asteroid plummeting to Earth. Chicxulub. World-ender. To win, in this world, they need to change the way they operate, because the NCAA and its powerhouse programs sure as sh*t aren’t going to do anything to accommodate Notre Dame. College football doesn’t need Notre Dame to be good. College football doesn’t need Notre Dame at all. Adapt or face extinction . . .

Let me be clear: I don’t care about Gunner Kiel, Davonte Neal and Justin Ferguson. I don’t wish them ill in any way shape or form, I’m sure they’re all nice enough kids, I’m just not going to bat an eye at their decisions to leave Notre Dame. Upset about your lack of playing time? Air a bit too brisk? Unhappy with the pesky demands made by your classwork? Not pleased with having to compete with more motivated individuals for your place on the depth chart? Have a new baby 1,500 miles away? Whatever. You’ve got your reasons; you’ve made your choices; good luck to you in the game of life. But what does concern me are the larger, more systemic flaws these transfers (and decommitments, for that matter) drag into to an unflattering light. Namely that decades of willful mismanagement of the football program, and a stubborn refusal to evolve beyond an antiquated and embarrassingly idealistic notion of how college football should operate, have left Notre Dame with virtually no leeway for the type of personnel wastage that other programs consider as matter-of-course. Whether kids like Kiel, Neal and Ferguson ever would have panned-out is anybody’s guess. But even if they never see meaningful minutes for their programs, those must-have, high-ceiling kids serve another, equally important function: they form the bedrock on which successful, durable football programs are built and sustained. They cushion the talent drop-off between 1st and 4th string. They ease transitions, ameliorate the blow from injuries, and ensure that slip-ups don’t occur against inferior opponents. They may not develop into a program’s primary option, but they most assuredly are its life blood. That National Championship game should have been a Road to Damascus moment for this football program. Like it or not, the discomfiting truth is that Notre Dame is more than just a few, short years away from seriously competing for a championship against an upper-tier SEC program. And it’s irresponsible to think defections like these won’t widen a gap that one may justifiably consider as being insurmountable. Ignoring this problem is as dangerous and unacceptable as some of the “next-man-in” rationalizations people are tossing around. Something needs to be done—and quickly: either an institutional softening or recodifying of principles, or a wholesale re-gauging of expectations from the fanbase, because this is rapidly becoming an irreconcilable conundrum . . .

LeGarrette Blount . . .

Carlisle’s scholarship would be better utilized on someone who can actually play football . . .

A suit conveys polish, or even duplicity; an otherness that might not go over so well in a situation where you want people to believe your story or sympathize with you. Because when people see a suit and they immediately think you’re selling something. What Te’o’s wearing is perfect for communicating the wholesomeness and believability he and his camp are shooting for: open, neutral, ordinary—like many of the people who’ll be watching. It’s something you’d wear for a family Christmas photo. An outfit says, “I’m just a simple, unsophisticated kid who got played, not some calculating, manipulative schemer.”

My name's whatever you'd like it to be. Payment's same as usual. No exceptions . . .

Just to be clear, I'm not blaming the medium for this sh*tstorm, I'm simply arguing that it would be improper not to consider (or to completely deny) its role in shaping it . . .