bamatone.net

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/269351.html

General Lee watched over us while we slept at Hotel Le Cirque, but perhaps that was a bad omen. After all, Alabama failed to repel the invading Northern aggressors from Utah. Folks, I've been to a lot of Alabama football games, and the '09 Sugar Bowl ranks up there as one of the worst ever. We got worked over in the 1st quarter the way the '08 Patriots worked over most of the NFL. Thank God I spent almost all of that game drunk as shit and in the concourse area making friends with KDs and other randoms.

It pretty much was one of the worst sports weekends I've ever seen, as the Falcons turned right around on Saturday and gave the Cardinals their first home playoff win since World War II.

I guess if you remove sports from the equation, it was a pretty decent trip. I saw a ton of people I knew on Bourbon St., had me a few Huge Ass Beers, made a couple of new friends, walked into my first casino, and spent almost four hours in a Gordon Biersch brewery/restaurant.

I only took six pictures the entire time. Mostly because I forgot to bring my real camera and had to use my phone. (Which btw does take pretty darn good pics.) And also because I was out of the party mood pretty quickly after the beat down commenced. Link to album is here.

Oh yeah, if you ever get a chance to have Peroni on tap, take advantage. It's much better than in the bottle (as usual). Turns out DePalma's has it, and since I was there last night eating veal for Lynne's birthday, I partook.

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/184933.html

I apologize to Alabama's Nick Saban -- last year I named him president of the Liar's Club. He's been impeached and replaced by the disingenuous drifter.

Even in a profession rife with dishonest posturing, Petrino is singularly mercenary. Loyalty, allegiance, commitment and honesty are foreign concepts to him. It must be a sad existence.

-- Pat Forde, espn.com

Some differences between Saban and Petrino, with other thoughts:

• Saban spent two years with the Dolphins before deciding he wanted to come back to college. Petrino spent less than one, quitting 2/3 of the way into the season. Not only that, he held a press conference in Arkansas and did a Pig Sooie cheer live on SportsCenter less than 24 hours after the Falcons got their asses kicked on Monday Night Football. Falcons CB DeAngelo Hall had something to say about that.


• Saban didn't speak to Alabama officials until after the end of the NFL regular season. (His agent had to convince Saban to listen to Mal Moore after the season was over. "These people have waited a long time.") Petrino told Arthur Blank on Monday that he'd definitely be back as the Falcons coach in 2008. When asked by a reporter at the Arkansas press conference last night what made him change his mind, Petrino replied that it wasn't about changing his mind - it was about working out the details. Translation: He flat out lied to Blank and was working on this for the past few weeks.


• Alabama targeted Saban. Petrino targeted Arkansas.


• As a Falcons fan, I am glad Petrino's gone. I opposed his hire from Day One (as well as the firing of Jim Mora, Jr., whose loyalty to the Falcons never wavered, his bad joke about Washington notwithstanding). I don't know who Blank will target next, but I hope he consults me first before hiring anyone this time.


• I'm too disgusted over this to write any more. I'll just send you to my friend Andy's blog.