I'm in a bit of a foul mood today and it isn't just because Dan The Man Haren has slipped out of Cy Young contention. It isn't because our team is five games below .500, although that is contributing to it.
No, it's more because there are a lot of things in sports lately that have been bugging me and since I have a place to bring it up, I might as well.
The thing that's been annoying me more than anything these days is Peyton Manning's face. Listen I loved his SNL appearance and this is quite possibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen:
At the same time, Manning was already in thousands of commercials BEFORE he won the Super Bowl last year. Now, I'm inundated with Manning's mug every time I turn on the TV. He's a pitch guy for Directv, Sprint, Visa and Gatorade. And that's just off the top of my head. I don't even want to watch football games anymore because Manning is overkill. I mean seriously, you remember how the public got burnt out on J-Lo's overexposure a few years ago? If you're a sports fan, it is a million times worse. And it's not like he has some "attributes" that the opposite sex might like looking at. He's a large, gangly goofy looking dude who wears the ugliest looking facemask in football (next to the one bar kicker helmet).
Seriously, I don't think Michael Jordan had this much exposure when he was playing and the guy won six championships. The worst part is that he isn't even the best player in his own sport right now. That honor would go to LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers. I know LT hasn't won a championship, but his team is on the cusp of getting there and he is one of the most dynamic athletes in the game right now. Even on his worst week he still throws for a TD and runs for one.
So that's my major annoyance in sports right now. If I have to see that Manning running through the hotel with Dolphins swimming around Marvin Harrison one more time I'm going to scream. You can argue that Manning is the perfect pitchman for America. He's got a Southern accent, so he's charming to middle America. He apparently lives, breathes and sleeps football 24/7/365 so you won't likely be finding any Vick-like scandal waiting to blow up in his sponsors' faces. He's got a ho-hum demeanor to him that's very unthreatening. But I'm just tired of it. Get LT out there. Get someone else. Anyone else.
I don't write about other sports very often here, but the Manning overkill has been driving me bananas lately and I just needed to vent.
As for the A's, they are taking on the Rangers tonight at the Coliseum and Chad Gaudin is facing Kevin Millwood. First pitch is 7:05 p.m. Hopefully there won't be any Manning commercials...
