Saturday, January 31, 2009

Slacker post of the week....

For those of you who hang on this blog's every word, and there aren't likely too many that don't have the last name of Archibald, I must first apologize for not posting at all this week.

Between the GRE's, extra classwork and a bunch of other busy things going on I haven't posted but wanted to get this up before Super Bowl Sunday.

I also had tickets to the Blazers game tonight and the Rose City's finest put on a great show. Even with the disappointing outing from Greg Oden, Brandon Roy, Rudy Fernandez and LaMarcus Aldridge were enough to get buy a pretty crippled Jazz team.


I was most impressed with point guard Sergio Rodriguez who seems to be finding his own during this Steve Blake injury. Tonight he did a pretty good job controlling the tempo of the game, making good decisions with the ball and hitting a couple of shots. He also set up Przybilla at least a couple of times and hit Fernandez for a couple of highlight reel dunks.

Still think that the Blazers are better off standing pat, or making a move for a legit starting small forward/point guard/backup power forward if they are going to do anything over the next few weeks.

I still think Richard Jefferson would be a great get for the Blazers but at this point it seems unlikely that that big of a deal would go down. I also wouldn't mind seeing a push for Rudy Gay, although it would take a ton, or David Lee.

On to Super Bowl news....

A couple of years ago, my twin little sisters were pretty good basketball players at Seaside High School and their basketball team made it to the state playoffs. I traveled with my parents to watch them play in their first round game at Junction City High School, which they won.

Then, by some OSAA scheduling miracle, the Gulls had to travel back down the I5 corridor to Roseburg to play Douglas High School.

Most of you probably know that Douglas, a small school about five miles from Roseburg, is the alma mater of Troy Polamalu, the now safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While at the game, I couldn't help but notice the insane amount of Polamalu jerseys being worn by students at the game and the similar hairstyles displayed by some of the young men.

Thru a friend I was introduced to the Douglas High School Athletic Director who was relating a story about Polamalu.

Apparently, every off-season Polamalu makes a trip back to Southern Oregon and always stops by the high school. He doesn't come to be recognized at an all-school assembly or even to make an appearance to speak to an athletic team.

He always requests that nobody in the media know about his visit and often doesn't even warn the school when he is coming. When he gets to the school, Polomalu heads straight to the Special Education classroom where he spends the day working with the high schoolers with some sort of disability. The athletic director said that he is the most gentle and caring volunteer that the school has.

Now, some of this may be urban myth, or a high school athletic director exaggerating the truth a bit. But from everything I have seen or heard of Polomalu, it could just as well be true.

My point in sharing this is that the guy, despite his big hits and aggressive nature on the field is a pretty good guy. I will be rooting for him as much as anything else on Sunday. Maybe you should too.