1) Raiders (3-7) @ Cowboys (7-3) There has been a lot made of the Cowboys only scoring 7 points in each of their last 2 games, but I don't see a need to panic. If you think the Cowboys are gonna continue scoring 7 or less for the rest of the season you're crazy. The solution is simple: Don't throw to Roy Williams! I don't think its a coincidence that whenever the Cowboys actively try to get him involved the offense struggles. I watched every snap of the past 2 games, and on both of the touchdown drive, Miles Austin was being utilized for the first times of the game. I don't think that's a coincidence either, when we get the ball to Miles we move, when we get the ball to Roy we stall. Its simple. Now its just a matter of removing Roy from the equation and focusing on Miles, and Crayton, and Hurd. On the Raiders side of things, its funny the difference a competent QB can make, isn't it?? Yeah it was only 1 game, and yeah if Andre Caldwell doesn't fumble the Bengals probably win, but if Russell was playing the Raiders most likely would've been getting blown out. This stat says it all: in 1 start Bruce Gradkowski had 2 passing TDs, in 9 starts JaMarcus Russell had 2 passing TDs. Dammit, that just makes me pissed JaMarcus isn't starting today!
I'm not too worried about Gradkowski because we've seen him before on Thanksgiving. Back in 2006, Gradkowski lead his then Tampa Bay Buccaneers into Texas Stadium for a 38-10 loss. He was 10/20 for 120 yards and 2 picks.
The one thing that does scare me about this game is Greg Ellis. Greg knows the Cowboys' defense and he played against Tony Romo and the offense every day in practice ever since Tony has been in the league. I just have to hope there wasn't enough time for him to tell many of our secrets in this short week. Cowboys winners, Raiders losers.
2) Giants (6-4) @ Broncos (6-4) Remember last week we talked about how the Dolphins and Panthers seasons had mirrored each other thus far?? Well the Giants and Broncos are probably as close to that as you're gonna get this late in the season. The Giants won their first 5 and the Broncos won their first 6 before both dropped 4 straight. Close enough.
Anyway, it'd probably be wise to pick the Broncos here, but I don't know how healthy Kyle Orton is at this point therefore I can't trust this Broncos offense. Giants winners, Broncos losers.
1) Stop sending me Happy Thanksgiving texts. This happens every major holiday whether its Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years and frankly, I'm sick of it. Why do people you may or may not speak to that often think its thoughtful to send these texts?? Its just so impersonal and lame to me. Its pointless also. I know its Thanksgiving, you know its Thanksgiving, no need to send me some generic ass message someone forwarded you or you made up to send to 78 different people. If you really cared about me, you'd pick up the phone and call me, or you'd at least text me something tailored made for me. Generic holiday texts are annoying, don't annoy me on a holiday. 2) I'm not an asshole if I don't say Happy Thanksgiving. Again, I know its Thanksgiving, you know its Thanksgiving, I don't need to walk around saying "Happy Thanksgiving" to everybody I see. Look, I know I'm not the first person you talked to today, so I'm not an asshole or a grouch if I choose to just say hi.
3) How long will it take for advocacy groups to ruin Thanksgiving?? They've already ruined Christmas, so Thanksgiving has got to be next, right?? People can't just leave shit alone these days so its gonna happen. I'm sure somebody is working hard to find something wrong with pilgrims and Native Americans, or eating turkey, or find a flaw in the word "Thanksgiving." Its gonna be something and its gonna be coming soon, I can feel it.
Okay, I'm done. Now I'm gonna go listen to Nas' What Goes Around (Poison) just so I can hear one of my favorite quotables of all-time:
"The China-men built the railroad. The Indians saved the Pilgrims and in return the Pilgrim killed them. They call it Thanksgiving, I call your holiday Hell Day 'cause I'm from poverty, neglected by the wealthy."
Wow, not only did 50 Cent not grab the #1 spot, but he couldn't manage numbers 2, 3, or 4 either. Debuting at #5 is 50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct with 161,200 sold (I believe I called that). The sales reign for 50 is over.
The man who actually does get to sit atop the Billboard 200 is John Mayer as his Battle Studies pushes 286,000 out the store.
Jay-Z's Empire State Of Mind with Alicia Keys hangs onto the #1 spot for another week after seeing gains in airplay, sales, and online streaming. The Billboard 200 1-10 first week debuts in bold
1. John Mayer - Battle Studies (1) 2. Andrea Bocelli - My Christmas (2-2) 3. Norah Jones - The Fall (3) 4. Casting Crowns - Until The Whole World Hears (4) 5. 50 Cent - Before I Self Destruct (5) 6. Justin Bieber - My World EP (6) 7. Michael Jackson - This Is It sdtk (4-7) 8. Various Artists - Twilight Saga: New Moon sdtk (10-8) 9. Carrie Underwood - Play On (3-9) 10. Taylor Swift - Fearless (5-10)
Last season's American Idol winner Kris Allen's self-title debut album comes in at #11 with 80,000 sold. I smell "Ruben Studdard/Clay Aiken 2.0" brewing with Kris and Adam Lambert. You know, the clearly gay guy, that didn't wanna admit he was gay during Idol, that came in 2nd place and ends up having a more successful career than the actual winner. I can smell it, I can see it.
Leona Lewis' 2nd album Echo comes in at #13 with 67,300 sold, a far cry from her 2008 debut Spirit.
Rakim's long awaited come back album The Seventh Seal comes in at #61 with 11,700 sold.
Pretty Ricky's self-titled album debuts at #97, but I can find their sales figures anywhere. If Rakim did nearly 12,000 at #61, I'm guessing PR sold around 5,000.
The Billboard Hot 100 1-10 first time top 10's in bold 1. Jay-Z - Empire State Of Mind (1-1) 2. Lady GaGa - Bad Romance (11-2) 3. Owl City - Fireflies (2-3) 4. Jason Rulo - Whatcha Say (3-4) 5. Ke$ha - TiK ToK (10-5) 6. Iyaz - Replay (4-6) 7. David Guetta - Sexy Chick (12-7) 8. Lady GaGa - Paparazzi (9-8) 9. Britney Spears - 3 (6-9) 10. Jay Sean - Down (7-10)
Leona Lewis' Happy see's a surge with her album coming out last week and goes 59-31 this week.
Kris Allen's single Live Like We're Dying jumps 29 spots 71-40.
Alicia Keys' Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart (I'm sure she could just call up Mashonda if she really wanted to know what that was like) debuts at #58.
Rihanna's Hard with Young Jeezy starts off at #80 this week.
Melanie Fiona's It Kills Me comes in at #88.
In a true shocker, the intro to 50 Cent's new album, debuts on the Hot 100 this week. The Invitation starts off at #97, lets see if it can hang around.
Stephen A. Smith broke the story on his website and on the 6pm SportsCenter, and future Hall Of Famer Allen Iverson is planning on retiring from the NBA at the age of 34. Here's the statement from Iverson himself.
Here's my response to all of this: Yeah fuckin' right! I love Allen Iverson, not only he is one of the all-time greats, but he was the first player to really give Hip-Hop a face in the NBA. Cut the bullshit though, man. I hate to say it, but A.I. is just seeking attention and and public sympathy right now, that's it. He doesn't want to retire and he isn't planning on staying retired. He said it himself, he still has the desire to play, and he clearly can still play. The problem is he just wants to play on his own terms, which is why no teams are calling.
And if you were a GM, why would you call?? Think about it, why would you want a guy who's main priority is whether he's a starter, and not what he could do to help the team win?? Nobody wants that bullshit, not even the Knicks.
Bottom line: Whenever Iverson decides to get off of his high horse, his phone will start ringing. Until then, save us the dramatics. Nobody can be on the top forever and Father Time is forever-and-0, get with the program Allen.
(Side note: The 2 best parts of this retirement is 1) constant replays of Iverson crossing up Jordan and 2) hearing the infamous "Practice. We talkin' about practice!" rant again and again.)
That was awfully light. I don't know how he plans to bait Jay-Z with the kid gloves on. Then again, it doesn't really matter because Jay isn't gonna respond anyway. Beans is basically wasting his time and is about to be used by 50 in an attempt to get interest back into his music career.
(Side note: Aren't you tired of this beef already?? Its more sad than anything. Its kinda like the guy who lost his job who has to rob people out of desperation to put food on the table. Just sad.)
Again, nothing special and boxing with the kid gloves on. A bit boring in actuality. Yep, I can feel myself steadily drifting into not caring about this at all.
Its funny how some folks on the ESPN shows seems shocked and appalled by this clip when it was clearly a bit for the show. Their own co-worker, Bill Simmons (who used to work on Jimmy Kimmel Live and still remains good friends with Jimmy), is the one who tells the story! Hell, not only was it in Bill's book he was all over ESPN promoting, but when he was on Kimmel a couple weeks ago he told the "Artest running to 3rd team bus in underwear" story AND Jimmy brought it back up DURING THIS INTERVIEW.
God bless them, but I swear the majority of people on ESPN only watch highlights and usually have no idea of any background of the things they're asked about. Its sad really.
Anyway, the 2nd part of the Artest interview is after the jump.
If a nigga ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever walk up to me and says "Ay my man, I got that D. Woods" and then shows me something illuminating near his crotch and follows that up with "one hit of this you gon' be alive forever" I'd slap that nigga's kufi, straight up. Nothing against D. Woods the artists, but that shit sounds WILD homo, no joke. I couldn't even concentrate on the damn song after that shit lol. Related: D. Woods - Life After Danity Kane The Grinch That Stole Valentine's Day
I swear to you I was JUST thinking about Dylan last week! Real shit, no lie, and then he pops up with a video on OnSmash. The world works in mysterious ways. Speaking of the word "mysterious," what ever happened to the rapper Mysterious from Making the Band 2?? You'd think she would've come out with a mixtape or SOMETHING by now, I mean shit.
(Side note: Dylan, as low budget as this video was, why couldn't you have dropped it a year ago when Ego was actually out??)
Okay, seriously, what happened to Timbaland's neck?? We might need to put an APB out on my dude's neck like for real, for real.
(Side note: Seeing SoShy with that red dot on her forehead made me wonder what ever happened to that Indian chick Timbaland signed back in like '02 when those Indian samples were poppin'?? Remember, he kept bragging about how instead of using an Indian sample he had an actual Indian singer in all his interviews?? I don't remember her name, but lets get an APB out on her too. I know I'm not the only one that remembers this shit lol.) **UPDATE**
Her name is Raje Shwari, I gotta see if I can find any of her music or anything to post.
Come on Atlantic, y'all couldn't spend the extra few hundred dollars to send Maino to Atlanta or Miami to go to a real strip club to shoot this video?? I mean come on!
Here it is, the vaunted Rihanna comeback album. You know what the funniest part of her comeback is?? The fact that the Chris Brown incident happened the same year as her comeback. Seems like there should be more time in between those events, right??
Whatever, RiRi is back and the public interest seems to be there so expect this album to do very well. I'm gonna go with 250-300k for her first week because of the early release date and also Black Friday.
Speaking of public interest, judging by what his Money To Blow single is doing, Birdman doesn't have much of it. Either Drake's buzz is starting to fade or people just aren't that interested in Baby and that terrible song. I'm sure not that many people will know his album is dropping until they see it on display this Friday so I'll be generous and offer 45-70k.
Jay Sean has had the #1 single in the country as recently as October, but I could see this being Jeremih part 2 (big nationwide single, randomly drops an album that gets little to no promo, flops, and disappears). I'm gonna go with 15-35k.
I thought this was a mixtape. Most people won't know its out either way, 4-10k.
I gotta credit TMZ with that "swine flew" line, it made me laugh so I swiped it. At least I can admit when I steal though lol.
Anyway, this shit made me literally laugh out loud because that shit hit her square in the nose like it was done on purpose. Then again, maybe it was? Everybody seemed to be handing the hams off when some nut job decides to Roger Clemens one in the direction of poor Paula's mug. The grunt I heard when the ham was chucked sounded like he/she wound up that fast ball up with some purpose to me.
If it was done on purpose then seriously, what the fuck?? Did Paula steal his/her recipe or something?? Come on! I'm sure there was no reason to go ham on Paula's grill. Sad...yet hilarious.
That doesn't stop this from being hilarious though. I wonder if the chef who created it actually made it for himself and somebody just happened to tell on him?? Its a possibility. Well I guess this is a nice way to cover up the embarrassment, but a spoon full of this shit and embarrassment will be the last thing that needs to be cover up as he walks around the kitchen lol. 2) Study Touts Success With 'Female Viagra' Drug If this shit ever comes out for real I predict divorce rates dropping drastically. I mean just think about it, this could officially put an end too wives not being "in the mood." The possibilities are endless!
And I probably shouldn't say this, but it could bring rape numbers way down too. If a guy breaks up a couple of these pills and gives them to a potential victim, is she really that against the sex?? I don't know? I'm just saying.
Long story short, this drug could literally change the world as we know it.
