Here’s The Thing: The Blind Side & Bud Selig

In case you haven’t noticed, starting every sentence with the word Look is very much en vogue.  I blame Barack Obama for this and nobody can convince me otherwise.  While it’s encouraging that the use of other vexing words or phrases like meantime, it is what it is and I’m humbled have been gradually reduced over the past year, Look is still as popular as ever. 

Although Look is a lock for most overused word/phrase of 2009, the odds-on-favorite for 2010 has to be Here’s the thing.  Trust me, if it hasn’t happened already, very soon you will not be able to go more than 24 hours without hearing it.   I attended a meeting earlier this week and one person said this phrase at least a dozen times in an hour.  Unbearable. Absolutely unbearable.   

There is a lot going on in the world today, but here are two issues that have been on my mind:

The Blind Side, a true-ish story of Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Michael Oher, opens tonight at a theater near you.  It’s an inspiring story about a guy from the poor South who was truly saved from the streets by a rich white family.  However, those who needed to hear about it the most were out of luck because the Oher story was originally a book.  That means that over 50% of the country (hello Red states) were completely oblivious to it.  The only way to reach that audience of racist hicks was to make the book into either a movie or a gun rack. 

With replays clearly showing a hand-ball in France’s World Cup win over Ireland, FIFA now has a golden opportunity to order a replay (or a “do over” in Americanese).  Technology provides us with frame-by-frame views of the illegality – not to mention the guilty player has publicly admitted his indiscretion and approved the idea of replay – so FIFA has the chance to move into the 21^st century and do the right thing.  Will they do it?

OR…

Will FIFA follow in the footsteps of the drunk-for-three-decades ramblings of MLB’s Bud Selig and simply say “we’ve been doing it this way for over a hundred years and everything has been fine.”  Bud refuses to consider additional instant replay in baseball despite the umps getting several key calls wrong this past post-season.  Hey Bud, did we have high definiton tv’s a hundred years ago?  Do you still use a rotary phone (or two soup cans tied together with a string)?  C’mon FIFA, show that you’re no Burp Bud Selig.  Give Ireland its fair shake.