I understand the need for rules in sports. I understand that if you let one player get away with something everyone else will try to get away with it too. I understand being the commissioner of the NFL is probably a tough job. But there are some rules in the NFL that are a little outrageous.
I’m not going to get into the “real” rules that are out of control (i.e. roughing the quarterback and pass interference penalties). I’m talking about taking things a little too far.
Yesterday Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter was fined $5,000 for not showing enough white in his game socks. Seriously? I wasn’t aware that the NFL has fashion police. Who noticed that? And why $5,000? Did anybody think to mention to Porter that he should pull his socks up? Porter plans to appeal, and said he was never warned before or during the game in question (Week 6 against the Saints).
“You’ve got to tell me so I can fix it,” he said. “You can’t just fine me. You’ve got to give me a fix-it ticket. Even the police give you a fix-in ticket.”
Everybody knows that Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco is a colorful guy. He likes getting attention, his name pretty much sums that up. He has openly said he is ready to pay a fine before a game for a pre-planned touchdown celebration dance. But this week he was fined $10,000 for wearing a black chinstrap instead of the regulation white one. Seriously? 10,000? 
The only justification could be that this has happen to Ochocinco before. This preseason he was fined $5,000 for wearing an orange chinstrap. He first wrote about the fine on his Twitter page:
“I am color blind so this fine is discriminating because I’m disabled in a way, this is a sad day for me:(“
And this week (Week 9) Ochocinco tried to be funny by handing th ref a dollar trying to get a call to go his way. Everyone knows this is a joke, but I have a feeling the NFL won’t see it that way and he will get fined. I wonder if he has a separate bank account just to pay off his fines each week?
So what are your thoughts about the “dress-codes” and seemingly overpriced fines?
Here is a good site to look at: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/08/29/chad-ochocinco-fined-5-000-for-orange-chin-strap/
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4589878&campaign=rss&source=NFLHeadlines
So those are high profile. But this last one took place in a cutthroat Delaware soccer league during a match between “Fulhundred” and “Pizza by Elizabeth.” After receiving a red card from the ref, the Fulhundred soccer player Rannard A. Jones grabbed the official and BIT HIS FACE. He suffered lacerations to the face, but was otherwise okay. Jones was charged with assault, abuse of a sports official, terroristic threatening and harassment. 
So my Boston College boy, Matty Ice gets knocked out in the first round by Grandpa Warner. Vikings go down at the hands of McNabb. Joe Flacco shows that the word rookie means nothing to him and takes down those stinkin’ Dolphins. Thankfully the Football Gods decide that Peyton Manning, (having already won an award he didn’t deserve) would not continue on in the playoffs, so the Chargers send them home. So at this point, Flacco is really the only interesting story left. I don’t care about destiny and McNabb. 
The San Francisco 49ers will be wearing their throwback uniforms in the season finale this Sunday, and members of the team have been inspired to sport the classic mustache as a tribute to some of the more distinguished 49ers of the past. Among them Kevin Fagan, Mel Phillips, Roger Craig, Ray Wersching, Keith Fahnhorst, Jerry Rice (in the form of a goatee), Jimmy Johnson, the late John Ayers and Randy Cross.
A lot of athletes play with intensity but there is one man that rises above them all, and that man is Kevin Garnett. If you have ever watched him play you know what I’m talking about. Before each game he sits on the bench with his head down, completely unfazed by everything around him. After he is introduced and the crowd dies down he goes over and pounds his head into the padded post of the basketball hoop. If that doesn’t frighten you just wait.
that the other players can hear and the ref can’t. Once KG makes a play is when the real show starts. There is chest pounding…not your average thump on the chest though. Oh no, this is the would-break-my-sternum kind of pounding. Then there is the head-back scream, which is usually coupled with the jersey pull, you know what i’m talking about- when he shows off the word CELTICS across his jersey. That one is my personal favorite, mostly because he is showing how he represents the best team in the NBA and he’s damn proud of it. 
new road jerseys make me want to vomit. They are trying to do a throw-back type thing, but it looks like crud. And I am not alone in this, boston.com did a survey: 
Plus, we all know the real reason this is happening…to make more moolah. My 9 year-old cousins first words when he saw the new hats: “I want one of those!” And that is exactly the reaction Red Sox management was going for. Everybody’s gonna want the new gear which means more money. Why they need more money is beyond me…they have raised the price of tickets almost every year since 2004. They are making it so your Average-Joe can’t even go to the game with his family anymore without emptying the savings. 
would talk about something else I love. My cat. Yep, I love him and I don’t care what you think. Now, I used to consider myself a “dog person” but only because I was allergic to cats. Then I was forced to live with a cat, it was rough for a few months…sneezing, itching, asthma attacks…but then I became immune to him or something. So now, one of my best pals is my cat Peach. 
