I've been a Digg member for awhile now and in digging stories, I started noticing how I was looking at many, many blogs to look for new things to submit. I noticed I had the Digg bug and was submitting stories about anything. I could not control the urge to Digg. I was alienating friends because I was shouting all day long. I'm pretty sure my friends finally had to just stop accepting my shouts, or deleting my shouts once they saw my icon. I am truly sorry for being a pain in the ass, but it did motivate me to just start posting stories on my own and try to convert my Digg urge to writing stories. I had gotten the urge with the Daily Digg Disappointment and I wanted to do more than that. The DDD was my way of trying to pay back some friends for accepting all of my shouts. The great thing about blogging is, I don't have to bother my friends and ask for favors anymore. It's not that I don't appreciate my friends, it's just I hate to bother them so much. Heck, I was actually asking them to Digg a post they may not have liked!
A couple of things happened to trigger all of this and it came to a head just today. I even tried on today's DDD and it must have looked pretty funny as I tried using Blogger in earnest today. I am ready to start blogging. Thanks Digg! My idea is to blogg about any and everything. I know there is competition out there. Trust me, I know it. But hopefully I will find my niche soon enough to capture an audience. Hell, maybe even Babyman will read it. The point is, instead of me asking good Digg friends having to put up with my shouts, I'll just post my own submissions here and if friends like it, there is a Digg button at the bottom of my posts.
Let's try this puppy out.
What the hell? Car thief held after stand-off with boars
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police pursuing a car thief through a dark forest turned rescuers when the man became cornered by a family of angry wild boar.
Officers caught the man's passenger after the pair rammed into a squad car on a cross-country chase and leaped from the stolen Opel, police in the eastern city of Schwerin said.
But they initially lost track of the 18-year-old driver during the night-time pursuit when he fled deep into the forest.
"Then he ran into the family of boars, and the head of the family squared up to him," a police spokesman said on Friday. "So he stood there, put his hands up, and called for help."
Officers rescued the man from the boars, then arrested him.
Lakers crush Spurs to take control of West finals
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Lakers, sparked by Kobe Bryant, cruised to a 101-71 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference finals.
Bryant, named the NBA's Most Valuable Player for the first time this month, top-scored with 22 points as the rampant Lakers won their seventh consecutive home playoff game this postseason.
The All-Star guard also registered five rebounds and five assists while Lamar Odom contributed 20 points and Jordan Farmar 14 from the bench.
Defending NBA champions San Antonio, beaten 89-85 in Game One on Wednesday, fought back from a sluggish start to level the scores at 37-37 early in the second period before being outclassed the rest of the way.
Guard Tony Parker led the Spurs with 13 points and center Tim Duncan added 12 points and 16 rebounds.
The series switches to San Antonio for the next two encounters with Game Three on Sunday.
"It's going to be a big challenge for us," Bryant told reporters of the task facing San Antonio on the road.
Prime Association Eatman: Be Careful When Comparing Corners To Deion
Measuring sticks.
We all use them. We all like to gauge what we're seeing now and compare them to the best, either from a few years ago, or way back when.
Are Kobe and LeBron going to be the next Jordan? Has there ever been another Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle? Seems like every great pass-rusher is going to be the next Lawrence Taylor.
And with that, every cornerback that comes along that can run, cover, catch, return kicks and punts and has just a tad of showmanship must be the next Deion Sanders, right?
It's a fine line to walk. Sure, a young cornerback wants to get compared to Deion, arguably the best cornerback in NFL history and some might even say he's the best athlete to ever put on the pads.
Just to get this out of the way, and definitely acknowledging that anything earlier than the 1980's for me only comes from NFL Films, I can honestly say Deion is certainly one of the best football players I've ever seen. And when it comes to exciting, no one even comes close.
So all that being said, is it really a good thing to get compared to Deion?
Makes me a little uneasy. There was only one like him.
The Cowboys actually have two players now on the roster who get the Prime Time associations. In fact, both Terence Newman and Pacman Jones get compared to Deion on a regular basis, including several times this week.
While the signing of Marion Barber and getting him into the team's OTA practices proved to be a bigger story, the Cowboys actually gave more money to Newman, who also signed a seven-year deal on Tuesday worth more than $51 million.
Newman is not Deion Sanders. And he'll be the first one to admit that. But he's the closest thing the Cowboys have had to Prime Time since he was released by the club in 1999.
Newman thrives on his cover skills. He rarely, VERY rarely, gives up a touchdown. And that's because many teams choose not to test him, which is another reason he doesn't get as many interceptions as his harshest critics would like.
Newman has returned punts, showcasing his blazing open-field speed and he has dabbled on the offensive side of the ball.
And you can describe Deion the same way. Only Sanders was better at all of that.
Again, this isn't any slight toward Newman at all. I think he's one of the best corners in the game and I'm happy the Cowboys paid him what I believe he deserves.
Who cares if he's going to be 30 at the start of the season? When he says he'll be faster at age 35 than most players at 25, I believe it. He's a weight-room freak. Strength coach Joe Juraszek has to kick him out of the weight room on some days. While several players will complete the off-season program's required 48 workouts, Newman will likely be well over 60.
That's just the way he is. And that's one reason a player can get up into his mid 30's and still not lose a step. That's what the Cowboys are hoping Newman can do.
Sanders played until he was nearly 40 years of age. Not sure he was ever called a "workout warrior" or anything like that. But Deion was just a natural. And that's why no one can really compare to this guy.
Until a player spends the entire summer with a baseball team as a productive leadoff hitter, then catches a plane to join his football team for the first game and plays the way he did in 1997 against Pittsburgh, without so much as one practice, then there's no one who can be compared to Deion.
That's one of my favorite Prime Time memories. Another one is when he missed all of training camp as a rookie with the Falcons in 1989, showed up on Saturday, played on Sunday against the Rams and fumbled the very first punt of the game in his NFL debut. Oh yeah, he then picked it up, ran about five yards backwards before he finally found a hole he was looking for and returned it up the field for an electrifying touchdown.
Right then, Deion Sanders became Prime Time.
And that kind of impact is exactly what the Cowboys can only hope Pacman Jones provides for this team.
You just got that feeling from the start of this whole thing. Sure, the guy is considered to be a pretty good cornerback, but he's proven to be an exceptional punt returner.
That's a little different from Deion, who was great at both.
And when Sanders played receiver extensively in 1996, when he started 11 games, he was a good receiver, maybe even closer to average. But he always had a great speed, and that is scary enough for most defensive players.
And that leads us to issue of Pacman Jones playing a little on offense. Can't say I heard Jerry Jones' comment on the subject this week in Arlington, but it sounds like the owner said he was open to the possibility. And why wouldn't he be? If he's so dangerous with the ball in his hands, then any team would be crazy not to figure out a way to make that happen.
Same thing in Chicago. If the Bears can't find a way to get Devin Hester on the field more on offense, then someone needs to be fired.
So I get the idea. But I bet I'm not the only one who just has to ask:
Can the guy get reinstated first? It's likely that Pacman's latest gambling situation will have an effect that. Once he ever gets cleared by the league, can he knock off the rust of a one-year layoff, please? How about seeing how good of a cornerback he is? Maybe we can see how dangerous of a punt returner first. But man, offense? Seems a little fast to me.
But then again, this is why Jerry Jones is doing this. This is why he believes Pacman is worth the risk. While he might not be exactly like Deion Sanders, he has that type of ability.
To make it better (or maybe worse), Pacman is switching from jersey number 32 to No. 21, in honor of Sanders, who has befriended Jones over the last few months.
So the comparisons are now completely unpreventable. It's a given. The first time the new No. 21 takes a punt return over 30 or 40 yards, or even all the way to the house, he'll be labeled the new Deion.
Imagine if he threw in a high-step, too.
Just remember, there's only one Deion. No one will ever be like that.
But if you can get one, or even two guys in the same ballpark, it should make for some rather prime-time entertainment.
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