J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q

For the love of God, I am SO tired of hashing and re-hashing the debacle in Eugene last Saturday where an incompetent official decided to either outright screw the Sooners or this individual was so stupid that he could not rule on one of the most basic football principles in the game. One of our WWE TV crew members was one of the tape operators who worked in ABC’s Production truck at Oregon and he told me Sunday in Toronto that the replay official saw up to 4 and maybe 5 different angles of the blown onside kick call and that there was conclusively NO technical issues to prevent this former 28 year Pac 10 official from making the obvious correct call. No, the replay official is playing the sympathy card and because of OU’s deserved outrage, the national media has made the replay official, Gordon Riese, the victim and Oklahoma University the spoiled bully in this perverse equation. What in the hell is wrong with this picture? I am sorry that Mr.Riese has high blood pressure but lots of us suffer from the same. Mr. Riese points out on numerous occasions that his wife has the job of being a nurse. That’s a very honorable profession to say the very least but it isn’t as if Mrs.Riese is the only nurse in Oregon. Now the 64 year old replay official who no doubt has many personal, university of Oregon friends who live not far from Riese’s home in Portland has decided to take a leave of absence from his replay duties for the balance of the season. That’s the best call Riese has made this season. I only wish his pals who actually worked the game including Mike Belotti’s high school “acquaintance” the crew chief of the OU-Oregon game would do the same. It was a bad day at Black Rock but now we move forward. We cannot change history but we can make history if this team starts paying up to their potential and, gasp, runs the table. It could happen. The odds are against it but it could happen. I suspect the Sooners will be moderately P.O.’ed this Saturday night against Middle Tennessee State as one would have to assume that the Duck Debacle would have left our team in a fighting mood. Perhaps OU will rediscover the alleged lost swagger this Saturday and carry it forward for the balance of the season. I may be an eternal optimist when it comes to OU Football but so be it. No game is a guaranteed victory and if OU has an Oregon hangover this Saturday night could have several scary moments. The Sooners need to start out with a sense of urgency from the get go and not let up until Coach Stoops calls off the dogs. The Sooner defense needs to become carnivores. For the national media to say that Adrian Peterson has little or no chance of winning the Heisman Trophy is simply stupid. How can any one with a minuscule amount of intelligence watch AD play and not see that OU’s # 28 isn’t one of the best running backs ever in the college game? ESPN’s Game Day crew annoys me as all of them want to be “rock stars” and not football guys. Hey, we do sports entertainment in the WWE but for my two cents ESPN should do sports, period. Sports itself is entertaining but this is the era of the controversial soundbite which seems to be the obsession of every talking head on TV sports. I think OU will cover the spread (28) but my biggest concern is getting any unnecessary injuries as we are two weeks and counting until October 7 and the showdown in Dallas against the Steers. Oklahoma State has a tough one this week on the road in Houston. I look for lots of points to be scored in this one and if OSU can defeat a decent Houston team away from Stillwater then the Pokes have taken the major steps forward many think. I think OSU is much improved and Mike Gundy is doing a great job re-building the Cowboys after jovial Les Miles bolted so I am going with the Cowboys to win the game. Tulsa travels to Annapolis to play the Naval Academy with Navy favored by 5 or 6. Because Navy runs the option which is hard to defend when a team doesn’t see it that much and even harder to replicate in practice, I am going with Navy to win this game but it could be by a field goal. I hope TU can pull it off but it won’t be easy against the disciplined Midshipmen. TU’s head man, Steve Kragthorpe, is a keeper but I don’t think TU will be able to keep this outstanding young coach much longer. Iowa State will play Texas closer than the 21 point spread even in Austin. Ohio State, clearly the best team in the nation at this time, will dominate Penn State and Notre Dame will rebound against Michigan State as John L Smith gets closer to being fired so he can be replaced by anyone hoops coach Tom Izzo prefers namely Steve Mariucci. I hope Mike Stoops Arizona team plays USC off the Trojans’ feet this Saturday. There is no doubt that ‘Zona will be pumped and will play with reckless abandon but the talent depth on the USC side is scary. Arizona upsetting pretty Pete Carroll’s squad would be awesome but it would also be the upset of the year. The good news is the game is in Tucson and if Coach Mike can keep this one close into the 4th quarter who knows what might happen? Take care and keep those emails coming. Our on line store should be open any day now. I hope you will order and try our sauces and some of our Slobber-Knocker merchandise which is perfect for any football fan. Have a safe weekend! J.R.