Greatest RBs of all time

With the possible retirement of Marshall Faulk (please, Marshall, do us all a favor and hang 'em up), we got to thinking where he ranks on the all-time RB chart. I think definitely top 10 and I think you could probably argue Top 5, if you take the whole package (running and receiving) into account, which you have to.

Anyway, here's my list. Feel free to disagree:

1. Walter Payton
2. Barry Sanders
3. Emmit Smith
4. Marshall Faulk
5. Eric Dickerson
6. Jim Brown
7. Curtis Martin
8. Marcus Allen
9. Tony Dorsett
10.Franco Harris

No Laughing Matter

Ok, so maybe it's not timely in the middle of the summer, but my last post about Emmy snubs got me thinking about the Oscars.

The Emmys changed their voting process this year and is getting a lot of heat for what a failure it was (with all of the odd nominations and omissions).

I think, however, that it IS time for the Oscars to change something. For years and years, good comedies and comedic performances have gotten the shaft from Oscar in favor of dramatic performances. If the Academy is going to be snooty about recognizing them as high-quality performances, then it's time to go ahead and add separate categories for Best Movie - Comedy, Best Actor - Comedy, etc, breaking them out like the Emmys and Golden Globes do.

Here is the start of a list I made off the top of my head of recent comedic performances that were outstanding and deserved to be recognized as such by the Academy. Why is a great performance that makes someone laugh inferior to a performance that makes someone cry? It shouldn't be.

CHEVY CHASE - Clark Griswold in "Vacation" (1983)
Arguably, one of the best characters in movie history. Here are the 5 nominees for Best Actor that year - you tell me Chevy wasn't shafted! -
Bob Duvall (Tender Mercies), Tom Courtenay (The Dresser)
Albert Finney (The Dresser), Michael Cain (Educating Rita)
Tom Conti (Reuben, Reuben)

MIKE MYERS - Austin Powers/Dr. Evil in "Austin Powers" (1997)
One Word: "Shhh!"






STEVE MARTIN - Navin R. Johnson, et al. in "The Jerk" (1979)
Okay, so he would have gone up against Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon that year... tough competition. And there was no way the Academy was going to unstuff it for this guy back then. No way. Lost cause. But worthy, nonetheless.




TED KNIGHT - Judge Smails in "Caddyshack" (1980)
This one would have been a "Supporting Actor" candidate and I'd argue it 'til the cows come home. Winner that year? Timothy Hutton for "Ordinary People." Exactly. Other memorable nominated performances included Jason Robards in "Melvin & Howard" and Michael O'Keefe in "The Great Santini." Puh-lease. All I can say to those chumps is, "How about a Fresca?"

Gimme a large HOT with a side of "yikes"

Okay, so I moved here from Boston to get away from the "extreme" weather trends in New England. Crazy hot and humid in the summer and windy cold and snowy in the winter. Back in L.A., it'll be nice to enjoy the stable, sunny, easy-going weather.

Um... riiight. Wait a sec... hmm, oh yeah, here's what I was going to say...

WHAT THE CRAP?!?

This is ridic! Did I bring this with me? I know the entire country is going through an extreme heatwave weather pattern, but aren't we supposed to be somewhat immune from this? Now, I live in the valley so I understand it'll get a little warmer there in the summer, but I was on the west side this morning and it was 90 degrees there at 10am!! Come on. This kind of bites, I must say.

Okay, that's it. Just a little weather venting. It will be very nice here next February when I throw on a light jacket and everyone back east is wiping their runny noses as they fight off the frosty wind while scraping the ice off of their cars.

Emmy "Nots"

Let's quickly talk about who did NOT get nominated, but should have.

1. Bradley Whitford (THE WEST WING)- as his wife (Jane Kaczmarek) said on Good Day, "he WAS the West Wing this season." The guy has basically taken over the show since Rob Lowe left, likely giving it an extra season or two of life with his charisma. He should have won a supporting emmy in the past but especially deserved a nod for lead actor this season. The nomination for Martin Sheen over him can only be explained by old voters who don't watch the show, voting for a name over a performance.

2. LOST - What's to say? The show WON the Best Drama emmy last year and wasn't even nominated this year. By far, this is the most talked about snub this year, especially online where the LOST fanatics reign supreme. This is my favorite show on the air right now, and since my opinion is gold, well... you see where I'm going. Shafted - Big Time. For a show that thrives on unexplainable phenomena, this omission is the most mysterious of all.

3. John Krasinski (THE OFFICE) - Okay, if you're going to pick a snub from The Office, the easy choice would be Rainn Wilson. Rest assured, Rainn will indeed garner a nom. or two before the NBC hit ends its run. The wacky characters always do. But I'm going to go with the less obvious choice here. The subtleties of Krasinki's "Jim" are so spot on for a guy who is the most normal person in his office, but not that bothered by it (see Ryan). He balances the soft art of quietly and sometimes anonymously heckling Dwight and Michael, while he struggles with his treadmill career path and his unfulfilled "friendship" with Pam. A show's "regular guy" is brilliantly played when you can totally identify with him, yet he is still amazingly compelling to watch. Such is Krasinski.

AND one snub that I go the other way on (in other words, I love it!)...

...ZERO nominations for the DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES!! Love it. It didn't take long (1 year) for the academy to choke on the media's oversaturation of these "ladies" as much as the rest of us have. I'm sure I'll hear it from my boss on this one, but I love that they got shut out. I'm setting the new over/under on the show's run at 2 more years, and I'll take the under.