When being right feels gross

January 10, 2017July 29, 2020 ~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For the last week, I feel like I’ve been the only person who had this niggling feeling that Alabama was going to lose to Clemson. Perhaps I just need to know more people who actually like sports. Prior to the game, I was the only guy in my department that picked Clemson to win the National Championship. I predicted a final score of 38-30. I wasn’t that far off. So I was right in my sports predicting, which is a little validating, but the end result of it is still Clemson as National Champions, so it does leave me with some slight nausea.

But seriously, whether it was ESPN or other national outlets, workplace proximity associates who like to pretend like they know things about sports, or even the mythical girlfriend, just about everyone I’d heard from since the field was set seemed to favor Alabama over Clemson. And justifiably so, Alabama was undefeated going into the National Championship, and they’d already proven they could beat Clemson by having done so in the previous year’s National Championship.

Regardless, I just had this feeling in my gut, that feeling that comes from having watched an exorbitant amount of sports throughout my entire life, that Clemson was going to win the game. Their QB was pretty much the ultimate bridesmaid, having come so close the year prior, and having been snubbed for two straight Heisman Trophies; and at literally his last collegiate game, he had absolutely one shot to immortalize his entire college career, before he’ll inevitably be making gobs of money in the NFL. Needless to say, a graduating Deshaun Watson with a chip the size of South Carolina on his shoulders against an 18-year old true freshman in Alabama’s Jalen Hurts, regardless of his immense talent, just didn’t seem like a favorable matchup for Crimson Tide supporters.

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It wasn’t unexpected, but I’m still disappointed

December 4, 2016July 28, 2020 ~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Clemson beating Virginia Tech (again) for the ACC Championship was a game that would be construed as a “good game.” The #23 Hokies did not shrivel up and get blown out like so many going up against a National Championship contender, instead keeping it close and undecided until literally 1:51 left in regulation.

The final score was 42-35. It was a good game.

But I’m still bummed out about it. I realize that of all the sports I enjoy and all the sports I watch, nothing brings me down harder than Virginia Tech football. They’re like the one team I’m ingrained to remain loyal to, so it’s their inability to reach the pinnacles of success and their failures to succeed that actually manage to make me feel mopey and disappointment when they occur.

I turned the game off before Dabo Sweeney could talk about how great of a game it was, how Virginia Tech is a program on the upswing, and other graceful remarks in said in victory. I don’t want to hear that shit. I don’t want to hear people saying nice things about Virginia Tech’s respectable performance in defeat. I know all this shit. Every Tech fan knows this shit. None of it changes the fact that Tech still lost, and losing sucks.

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The unexpected slaughter, 2016

November 27, 2016August 19, 2020 ~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

In 2011, Virginia Tech was really good. They started the season 4-0 and climbed all the way up to #11 in the AP national rankings. Then in week 5, Clemson came into Blacksburg and basically demoralized Virginia Tech on their home field with a suffocating defense. Tech shook off the loss and then rang off seven straight wins and pretty much cruised to the Coastal title, earning a date with the winners of the Atlantic: Clemson.

And in the ACC Championship Game, it was pretty much the same thing all over again, with Clemson’s defense smothering Virginia Tech, with Tajh Boyd throwing fifty touchdowns, running in ten more and making Al Bundy’s legendary high school game seem like Pop Warner. The two losses to Clemson would be Virginia Tech’s only losses* on the season.

*Excluding the bullshit loss to Michigan in the Sugar Bowl that wasn’t really a loss because Danny Coale’s touchdown was good but the crooked fucking refs overturned it, gifting the game to Michigan

In 2012, Virginia Tech wasn’t really that good. But they still played Clemson, and much like the year before, Clemson hung a ton of points on them again in a blowout victory.

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Hashtag NFLOL

September 18, 2016July 24, 2020 ~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Only in the NFL: Darren Sharper nominated for the NFL Hall of Fame; the same Darren Sharper who is currently in prison on an 18-year sentence for having drugged and raped upwards of 16 women

This wasn’t the screengrab I really wanted for this post, but apparently in the 21^st century, replay footage of Sportscenter is seemingly impossible despite being a digital medium. But this screen grab is close enough to what I saw on television, laughable at its absurdity that it’s actually true: a convicted rapist has been nominated to the “hallowed” football Hall of Fame.

No doubt, he won’t make it, regardless of his statistics and his participation in the Saints’ Super Bowl win in 2010. But the fact of the matter is that someone, who will in all likelihood remain anonymous because they don’t want to be outed as an imbecile for nominating a convicted felon, actually looked at the ballot in front of them, saw Darren Sharper’s name and thought “yeah, that’s a Hall of Famer.”

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Colin Kaepernick is a piece of shit

August 27, 2016July 23, 2020 ~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

TL:DR – Overrated quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers refuses to stand for the United States national anthem, citing racial injustice

I’ve never been a Colin Kaepernick fan. I thought his ‘kiss the bicep’ touchdown celebration was silly for a guy that had arms thinner than spaghetti, and felt that there was something of an ego problem with the guy. But I’m also smart enough to recognize the talent that he harnesses, and the absurd 2012 playoff run, where Kaepernick single-handedly put the entire team on his back and practically carried them all the way to a Super Bowl victory. However, it didn’t mean I had to respect the guy, I just didn’t ever like the guy.

But now, Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem, that’s a legitimate reason to call him a piece of shit.

Colin Kaepernick is a piece of shit.

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Priorities fail

July 21, 2016July 22, 2020 ~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Embarrassing: HuffPost sports article about NFL player who is underpaid despite making more money than entire small countries

I’ll admit, I bit the bait and clicked this article, knowing it was going to piss me off. I get it, as a sports fan, knowing the logic and truth to why discussions about the salary of professional athletes can actually exist, and that in the grand spectrum of the game of keeping up with the Joneses, players can be “underpaid.” But as a rational human being, I also know that professional athletes, at the lowest level of skill required to make a big league roster, will still make more than most doctors, educators and people who actually make differences in the world.

So I’m reading this article, and trying to choke back the alligator tears at the plight of a large man who is good at grabbing other large men and throwing them to the ground while fighting the villainous concussion monster. I’m reading and reading, about the sacks, the tackles, the underrated rush defense efficiency, but wondering how long it’s going to take to get to the bare numbers, the ones that I know are going to piss me off.

13 paragraphs of rhetoric about how he deserves more money, as if he cured cancer but works at the Wendy’s drive-thru. 13 paragraphs, and then we finally get to the empathy-inducing pitiful numbers of a man, scraping by to get a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs to feed his wife and three children.

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