Please Stop Hurting My Brain

Do You Guys Hear Yourselves?

Sometimes I wonder why I'm being punished. (Other times it's crystal clear). And sometimes I wonder why some people are constantly rewarded.

Like some of the sports "experts" around here. How do they get (and keep) their jobs? I mean, I studied journalism. I worked in the field. I worked hard and studied my subject matter. I was never asked to be on the radio or TV.

And I read and hear comments by some "people in the industry" (hard to call them journalists -- and I'm not even talking about the ex-athletes), and I wonder what they did to convince big-time editors and producers to pay them big money and hand them huge audiences.

For example, today, there was a comment (I won't say whether it was in a newspaper or on radio or TV or who made the comment) that Corey Dillon is "primarily a short-yardage or goal-line running back."

My brain almost committed suicide.

Do you watch the games? Do you read any written accounts? Do you watch any highlight shows? Do you have any idea what's going on outside of the 3-foot circle you call your universe? Do you even know what you're saying?

Dillon, on Sunday, carried the ball 20 times for 80 yards, leading the team in both categories. He averaged 4.1 yards per carry, a tenth of a yard less than Laurence Maroney, who carried 16 times for 65 yards.

Twelve of his 20 carries (60 percent) were on first down. Six more carries came on second down, and five of those with 5 yards or more on the line to gain, and the other second down was with 4 yards to go. Even one of his third-down carries was with 5 yards to go.

That's a full 85 percent of his carries that came on plays that were neither short yardage nor goal-line situations.

I know this, and I have a full-time job and I'm in the process of closing down a business, which is like another full-time job.

Of course, this is the same local media that wrote off Dillon last year, calling him old and injury-prone. They said he had character issues and wouldn't stand for sharing "primary" back duties with Maroney.

Clearly, there are those few idiots who root against the home teams, who can't stand to see others succeed, who feel they are the story instead of the reporter or analyst.

If the comment had been made by Butch Stearns or Dale Arnold or some ignoramus from the national media (like ESPN's Tom Jackson who once said the Patriots players hated Bill Belichick), that's to be expected. But this came from someone who you would think should have some clue what's going on around here, since it's his freakin' job.

I know it shouldn't get to me. People around me tell me so. But it's hard for someone of even reasonable intelligence who has training in the field to simply excuse a "professional" from such gross ignorance.

Say you're a dentist, and on the radio you hear that fifth guy who doesn't recommend sugarless gum for his patients who chew gum, and he says, "Sugar really isn't that detrimental to dental health. In fact, you only need to brush your teeth once a week." And you hear a colleague say something similar day after day after day and there's no other source to listen to the analysis of your profession. I think you'd be upset, too.

It's like John Belushi on Saturday Night Live in his news segment, when he'd start a discussion and ramble off topic until he works himself into a frenzy and flops across the desk and collapses to the floor yelling and screaming incoherently ...