Is Harry Potter the greatest movie franchise in history? It's not even finished yet but I'm having a hard time thinking of another series that's as solid throughout all the films as the Harry Potter saga.

Nominate your favorite franchises for a greatest ever list. To qualify the series must have at least 3 films in the series, and yes Star Wars counts as the entire 6 films, you cannot separate them into 2 trilogies.

Personally, I have always been astounded when I watch Monday Night Football and they do those little position introductions and each player says there name and College they went to with the neat little head shot.....or they pick one guy to introduce the D or Offense and their college. Well, if you have ever watched a MNF game with me you will know I always wonder out loud how come most of the guys introduced come from obscure schools. If you were to ask most people, You would suspect a typical offensive team intro would be a run down of traditional College powerhouses...

USC, Ohio St, Florida, Texas, Miami, Etc...........

But, Most of the time....especially Offensive Lineman I always noticed there are more obscure colleges or mid level colleges noted than Big Name Powerhouses. Now, Yes there are plenty of Big Name Powerhouses but you would think well over half would be from these types. Not the case. Listen next time an O-Line is introduced......I guarantee most of them are not from a top 25 ranked school. In fact almost every time 1 or 2 of them are from a school you look to your buddy and say....I didn't even know they had a program.

Anyway, The point to my post is I was listening to Colin Cowherd yesterday and He made another great rant about QB's coming from Big Name schools and not Succeeding. He pointed out that these guys might be more talented than some of their counter parts....but they have not been tested as much or forced to work as hard as their less talented brethren. Think about it.....Tim Tebow walks on the field with the best offensive weapons surrounding him nearly every single game.......He has the advantage. Not saying Tebow doesn't work hard just pointing out that in the heat of battle he doesn't have to grind as hard as say Matt Ryan at BC where he didn't have one Pro Level player on his Offense.

To Back this point up....Check out the top 15 rated QB's from last year and their corresponding Colleges. Only TWO Came from Football Factories......and Matt Cassell didn't even start a game at USC......Yet he is up there skewing the numbers a bit.

1. Rivers (NC State)
2. Pennington (Marshall)
3. Warner (Northern Iowa)
4. Brees (Purdue)
5. Manning (Tenn)
6.. Rodgers (Cal)
7. Schaub (Virginia)
8. Romo (E. Illinois) Come on.....Easter Illinois???
9. Garcia (San Jose St)
10.) Cassel (USC)
11.) Ryan (BC)
12. Hill (Marlyand)
13. Wallace (Iowa State)
14. Manning (Ole Miss)
15. Mcnbabb (Syracuse)


Very interesting to me. I think it just goes to point out the value of Hard Work over talent overall. How many times do you see talented people in life fail because they are not pushed. Just some food for thought.

And just for fun.....Here are the Colleges of Koko and Rich's Vaunted G-Men O-Line.

Seubert-Western Illionois
O'Hara-Rugters
Diehl-Illinois
Snee- BC
Mckenzie- Penn St.

We are Winners Tonight!

With our huge double header tonight.....a Sweep is necessary in our title Defense. This rant by Coach Singletary is turning into one of my favorite speeches and even though he is an ex-bear I sure hope he succeeds in the NFL because I love his old school mentality.

This is the speech every new member of the Cobra Kai will hear before they join the elite ranks of our team. It embodies everything about the Kai and the Dojo.

Let's Get Em tonight guys!!!!!!

Quentin Richardson has been on quite a wild ride this summer. Traded 4 times in a month! He played for the Knicks last season. He was traded from the Knicks to the Memphis Grizzlies then 3 weeks later to LA Clippers. 3 days later he's sent packing back to the midwest to the Minnesota T-Wolves. Just this week he was shipped to the Miami Heat.

With all the talk/posts recently of athletes not "getting it," seems like Q does. He is quoted as having a positive outlook on the deals knowing he's still getting paid millions to play a game & he has it good in life. The Anti-TO?

"To me, it's all in fun. I'm unbelievably blessed to be in this situation regardless. I could have been traded however many times, but I'm blessed to have a guaranteed contract. There's not a whole lot to be feeling too bad about. I don't know anybody who has everything go the way they want it to be. There are people out here struggling a lot more than I am. Where I could be complaining about being traded too often in the NBA? In the grand scheme of things, that's not a big problem."

Richardson Redefines 'Journeyman'

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Gentleman,

I turn to the great readers of the Dojo for help. I am ready to delete ESPN.COM from my favorites bar and turn to a new site for my sports reading. Over the past year I have found myself not reading any articles on ESPN.COM. I used to read 5-6 articles a day from them but it has somehow changed. It seems like there are only videos now and ZERO Articles.

Can you please help me find my new GO To Site for Sports stories. I am totally lost and feel lost in life without a heavy dose of good sports articles every day. Please I ask for guidance....and not oh this site has good stories once in a while...I want your GO TO Site..........the one you use for all your sports news and articles.

Thank You,
Keith

P.S. Due to an opportunity to scout for our future I will not be at the game tonight and wish the Team all the best in our big DoubleHeader.....Go Get Em Boys!!!!!

I like the fire and brimstone coming from the Dojo......and the firstorm Regs brings to the table. I encourage everyone to read his post below and respond accordingly.

Also, as a minor follow up to Regers Rant a week ago here is an article I read on the NY Times. It is by former Major Leagure Doug Glanville discussing how disadvantaged pro-athletes are heading into the real world. He talks about how difficult it is for pro-athletes to transition into the real world upon retiring at relatively young ages.

Now, I am assuming he wrote this for pure entertainment purposes and for people like myself to read just for the sake of reading about sports and life. However, I beleive he took it just a bit too far when he says there needs to be more done to help these players by the organazations around them so they are prepared for the so called after life.....AKA meaning when these guys have to enter the dreadful and brutal world we all live every day.

Take it as you want but to play devils advocate and to revisit Regs rant about how the Military and Police/Medics don't deserve praise yet we cheer Athletes now this guy is crying about how disadvantaged athletes are entering the real world.

Here are some quotes from the article:

I hope more is done by the organizations that surround a player during his career — the league, the players association, the alumni association — to help athletes transition into a new life. As I‘ve spoken with former teammates and opponents, many have described themselves as feeling disowned and ignored, scrambling to find some direction and support. Their disillusionment is powerful enough to make it hard to get off that couch and take on the new day. Where did all my friends go?

On top of that, most players are not set up for “real life” at all. Having been nearly invisible for a decade between every March and October, you have no idea how to be an ever-present father or a spouse, no idea how to create a resume or handle a job interview, no idea what is required to run a business or even what to do in the summer

I had been talking to my own former teammates about life after the game and its challenges. Every one of them had struggled in one way or another. No matter how your career ends, once it does, it feels like the rocket you rode to the top has been abruptly stopped by an errant asteroid. Many of my former teammates and opponents were shaken to their core by McNair’s death; it hit home for every one of them. There’s nothing to fill that void of competing every single day at the highest level.


Ok.....I don't know about the rest of you but I never had anyone show me the way on my profesional career. Yea, I went to college and had counselors (what a joke) but everything I learned was basically on my own....trial and error. And for him to say they are the disadvantaged ones that need help at this time with everything going in the world is kind of a slap in the face to us regular Joe's. And....Has any one of your former employers checked in on you after you left to see what they could do to help you out???

Anyway, Just thought I would continue the firestorm in the Dojo....take it for what it's worth.

So this will be my last post about the subject, because I am very sick of it, but I want to report that I successfully argued my point and won an arguement against Koko last week (not easy to do).

If you guys recall, last week I posted an item in which I applauded the Veterans Health System, only to get ripped to shreads by Koko and Juan about how poor the care for veterans was. the thing is, I totally agree with them and was only setting a trap in which they both walked right into. The Veterans Health System is terrible. People who need care don't get it. The VA Hospitals spend money on unneccesary items and ignore neccessary ones. Their Doctors are terrible and it takes forever to get ANYTHING done.

Guess what the Veterans Health System is?

Wait for it

Wait for it

Wait for it

Wait for it


GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTHCARE!!!!

That is right. This is what happens when the Government gets involved in Healthcare. You get what the Veterans have. To make matters even worse, Howard Dean (prominant liberal) just admitted last week that Medicare and medicaid are even worse off than Veterans Healthcare.
I knew I had to get creative to get those guys to admit that I am right, but i finally rest my case.
I'm officially done with the subject. Thank God.

A new edition of "Reel Reviews with Koko" has been posted for your reading pleasure.

I just bought my season tickets to the UFL in Orlando. If this doesn't sound like a great tailgate opportunity, I don't know what does. The tickets are cheap as hell. Mine were $19 per game and my seats are in the 5th row in the lower bowl towards the end zone.

We all spend that much at Gators on Friday anyways. I think we all should support the local team. All you need to do is go to Ticketmaster.com, search for "United Football League" and put in "Orlando" for the promotional code.

In light of the Swami’s recent reeducation efforts, I thought it necessary to spread wisdom throughout the Dojo. AS many of you do not know, I was mere semester hours away from becoming a history teacher. It was by sheer coincidence that the Swami dodged that bullet. So with that said, I feel that we all must understand history or else be doomed to repeat it. I bring to you the scrolls of Drunk History…

Is everybody down with changing the scoring to a decimal point system this year as to avoid ties and maximize points?...

Road comics have to go to the most outskirt parts of towns in order to make ends meet. But this guy took it to another level.

Here are Colin Cowherd's 10 absolute locks for the '09 NFL season. As usual most of his "locks" are so incredibly obvious that they should be called "duhs" not locks. But here they are and let's hold his feet to the fire on these after the season.

1. Patriots win over 10 games.
2. San Diego wins AFC West.
3. Steelers have a better record than both Cleveland and Cincinnati.
4. Detroit finishes below .500
5. Bears offense is improved.
6. Buffalo's offense is improved.
7. Redskins do not win the NFC East
8. Miami wins less games than last year. (11 games)
9. Denver finishes below .500
10. Seattle wins at least 8 games.

He just added another one after a kid in New York called all his "locks" weak.

11. Mathew Stafford, NFC rookie of the year.


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