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PCR #460 (Vol. 10, No. 3) This edition is for the week of January 12--18, 2009.
Matt's Rail

MOVIE REVIEW
"The Wrestler"  by Mike Smith
RETRORAMA
R. I. P. –- Ray Dennis Steckler  by ED Tucker
SPORTS TALK
Nfc/afc Championships Edition .... Gettin' Crazy With The Cheese-whiz In Arizona .... “feel Sorry For Those Giants.” .... Tony’s Coming Back To Tampa! .... Clemens Got Some Splainin’ To Do .... Pacman Jones Needs A Job .... Ravens Defeat Titans ....  by Chris Munger
MATT'S RAIL
Gruden Is Toast..where's The Jelly? .... Obama's Party .... Conference Championship Weekend ....  by Matt Drinnenberg
MIKE'S RANT
Forget The Ides Of Month - Don't Get Sick In January .... Sports Thoughts (sorry Chris) .... Speaking Of The Hall Of Fame .... Passing On .... Movie Notes .... And One From Television .... It's Oscar Time .... .... My Favorite Films, Part 2...  by Mike Smith
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GRUDEN IS TOAST..WHERE'S THE JELLY?
It is more than safe to say that the pedals have fallen off the rose.

Jon Gruden, one time Super Bowl savior of the up and coming Tampa Bay Bucs, and big time toast of the town, is now merely toast as the Glazer family (Buc owners) fired him yesterday.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say 'fired'!! I meant 'dismissed', which is just a nice way to say 'you're fired'. Along with Chucky goes GM Bruce Allen, who for my money was more the cause of the Bucs collapse than anything. Especially after the stellar job Rich McKay did building the Bucs into perennial super studs, only to watch the player pool digress into something that only a Lions owner could love.

According to Bucs players Gruden was not very well liked in the locker room. Could be sour grapes, but I have to think that could be the case given the Bucs awful collapse this year after starting 9-3. Once Defensive Coordinator Monte Kiffin announced he was leaving to coach for his son in Tennessee, the team completely fell apart with lackadaisacle play and uninspiring effort. To me it seemed obvious they were playing hard for Monte only. Once he was history, the players just lost their heart.

Being a Regional in retail I have seen more than once how bad management relates to bad performance. And this looks like a classic case of goods gone bad.

Nothing official as to his replacement but the Bucco's are leaning toward Raheem Morris, who was just named Kiffin's replacement at Defensive Coordinator.

The players need to have a sense of trust in their coach. Hopefully the Glazers go in that direction.

OBAMA'S PARTY
I'm not really getting into this too much. Just suffice it to say that, with so many people in the country homeless, broke, without Medical, and lost in financial ruin, I find it sadly typical that the Dems are wasting 120 million for Obama's party.

Typical and hypocritical considering the Dems blasted W and his wayward scumbags for spending 40 million when he was brought in bring us down. Therein, alone, did W do a good job.

As for the Barackian one, this is evidence enough for me that he is just another politician. For him not to immediately denounce this spending insult to the American people, and act like its acceptable, is proof positive toward that reality. Roger Daltry got it right when he sang 'meet the new boss. same as the old boss'

Change? He talked about 'Change'?

Check your own pockets Obama. Ours are all empty.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND
Can't tell you how excited I was going 4 for 4 last week in my football picks.

Yep, you read that right.

4 for 4.

I picked the Giants, Panthers, Chargers and Titans.

And they all lost.

4 for 4. Mark it down.

This is probably not swell news for Pittsburgh and Arizona, as I am picking them this weekend to advance to the Super Bowl, which fortunately I'm much better at picking winners.


God help us all.

Matthew

"Matt's Rail" is ©2009 by Matthew Drinnenberg. The Matt's Rail banner is a creation of Matt Drinnenberg. Webpage design and all graphics herein, unless otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.