Friday, February 09, 2007

Air Pelosi and other random bullets

Let's get out to the shooting gallery.

  • The hoo-hah over Nancy Pelosi's plane is silly, but I'm having a hard time feeling bad for her about it. Everyone in Washington treats our tax dollars like bathroom tissue and no one seems to bat an eye when the solons spend the money on stuff like this. What I'd prefer is that she and everyone else in Congress fly commercial. In coach. Then they could see how the rest of us live. And for Jack Murtha, since his district is close to Washington, he should take the Greyhound Bus.
  • John Edwards is allegedly in the top tier of Democratic candidates for president, but between the contretemp over his 28,000 square foot house and his hiring of two Kos-esque mouth breathers as his staff bloggers, it's becoming difficult to see how he's going to survive. The ambulance chaser lobby tends to do better when they are able to work behind the scenes. Edwards' ego may be short-circuiting his candidacy. Darn shame, huh?
  • The Vikings made a good hire in bringing Leslie Frazier to be their defensive coordinator. Frazier was always a smart player and he has been pretty successful in his career, save for a struggle as the coordinator in Cincinnati a few years back. It is difficult to be the defensive coordinator when the head coach is a defensive guy, and Marvin Lewis (the Bengals coach) is precisely that. Any difference in philosophy tends to get magnified. If Brad Childress keeps his word and allows Frazier to do his thing, the Vikings should continue to build on the improvements that Mike Tomlin started.
  • Meanwhile, all is quiet in Green Bay. Too quiet.
  • I didn't get much of a response on the obscure Packers challenge issued earlier this month, so let's prime the pump a bit. Here are a few beauts from the past: Jim Culbreath, Leotis Harris, Estus Hood, Tom Perko, Carl Barzilauskas, Leland Glass, Len Garrett, Jon Staggers, Bill Hayhoe, Carlton Oats, Harlan Huckleby, Larry Hefner. C'mon, guys, bring 'em on! These guys probably want to Google themselves and you could actually give them something to look at!

5 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

I didn't become a Packers fan until December 1992 so my history is pretty lacking. Most of the players that I remember are better known. I do remember the bald white guy in the secondary, Mark Murphy. Bit of a change to the dreads these days, eh?

Anonymous said...

How about the famous line backer (this is no joke my friends) Michael Hunt? or Wide receiver Willard Harrell, who wanted his name pronounced Will Erd Har Rell, other wise it sounded too much like weird Harold. Last but not least John Hadl. John was traded to the Packers in what may have been the worst trade in the history of the franchise. His best years were behind him, but the Packers gave what seemed to be every remaining draft choice in the 70's for him. Hadl was recently interviewed about the trade and his comments were pretty funny: "I hope no one blames me for that trade. I didn't make it." This trade reminds all of us of one of lifes famous axioms: To err is human, to forgive Dan Devine.

Anonymous said...

Butcher volunteers the following:

Bartie Smith
Scott Hunter
Steve Odom
Steve Luke
David Beverly
Vince Workman
Jim DelGazio
Frank Carr

Of course, I don't know any of them, but in the Obscure Packer Game, Butcher's right up there with the rest of you :)

Marge

Anonymous said...

Jessie Clark
Gerry Ellis
Eddie Lee Ivery
George Cumby
Paul Ott Carruth
Robert Brown
Alan Risher (scab QB from 1987)
Greg Koch
Phillip Epps
Perry Kemp

I don't remember a lot of 70s ones, but this should go a ways towards covering the 80s.

Mr. D said...

Good answers, everyone!

Hammerswing, if you've been following them since 1992, you missed a lot of bad stuff. Smart move on your part. Mark Murphy labored long and hard in the Packer vineyard and it didn't take long at all for Wolf and Holmgren to run him off. He was emblematic of the pre-Favre Packers; solid, noble and thoroughly mediocre.

John Hadl is a great call, too. I remember that one being called the "Lawrence Welk trade" that is, a one, a two, a one, two, three." And I don't blame Hadl; he did the best he could.

Butcher's list is a good tour of the Packers in the 1970s, although Vince Workman was more of a late 80s-early 90s guy. Special credit for getting much of the bad early 70s quarterbacking identified, although you missed Jerry Tagge and the immortal Frank Patrick. Still, a fine performance.

I also like mjh's list, especially the immortal Perry (the Admiral) Kemp, the poor man's Aundra Thompson. Oops, just started it again....