If I Could Get to St. Louis...

I needn't remind anyone of my love for Coach Fisher, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that, if I could fly to St. Louis for the season opener, I would.  I've never needed anything more than a Jeff Fisher stachio in my collection of football memorabilia.  I'd look so bitchin' in it.

xoxo,
Blanche Sanche

How could I forget?

The best part of my postseason: Jeff Fisher was hired as head coach of the Rams!  I'm not really that excited that he's going to be coaching the Rams, but I'm really excited 1. That he's coaching again and 2. He didn't go to the Dolphins.  I just adore Coach Fisher and I'm so glad he'll be with a team that realizes how lucky they are to have him.  I also dig that he'll be working with Sam Bradford because I think he'll do great things next season.

Can't wait to see you back on the field, Coach!

xoxo,

Blanche Sanche

My favorite football-related Twitter accounts

I'm an overactive Twitter user, that's no secret.  Of the 125 people I follow, I'm sure over half of them are related to football in one way or another.  Some of them are parody accounts, some are football players, and some are just other fans that are Twitterholics like myself.


What I've come to learn is that a majority of athletes that tweet are either compulsive retweeters and clog your news feed or boring.  The worst are tweeters whose use of shorthand or slang makes their tweets undecipherable (I'm talking to you, CJ2K!)  It's very rare to find an athlete that I genuinely enjoy updates from.  


With that being said, I'd like to give you a list of my favorite Twitter accounts, so that you can enjoy them as well.  Please feel free to add to the list or give me suggestions.  I always love finding new people to follow.


@FauxJohnMadden - Hilarious!  Yes, it's a parody account and not the real deal, but this person has some hilarious commentary on all things football.  Sometimes I think his tweets are more accurate than those of @NFL.  One of my favorite tweets? "Today's Wimbledon update is brought to you by.. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD END THE NFL LOCKOUT PLEASE!"
@NotJayCutler - Again, a parody account.  If you read my blog, you know how much I loathe Jay Cutler.  Any opportunity to mock Cutler is hilarious to me, though he doesn't tweet very often.  Sample tweet : "Am I nervous about the season? I haven't quit yet."
@nyjets - As far as Twitter goes for pro sports teams, the Jets are really on top of their game.  They are very interactive with their fans and they give thoughtful updates on press conferences, interviews, sound bites, and game highlights.  They are great with social media, which is another reason I think they are gaining so much popularity in the last few years.
 @nickmangold - Obviously, my favorite tweeter.  He tweets his fans (and haters) without a bunch of retweeting clogging up your timeline.  Nick is one of the few elite athletes that is truly grounded; he never makes himself out to be superior to anyone else.  He gets very quiet during the season, as to be expected, but he's a tweeting machine on his off time.
@Mark_Sanchez - I know, I know.  I'm a little biased when it comes to Sanche.  I just adore him, so obvi I adore his Twitter account too.  He shows his personality in a way you don't normally see pro QBs: he tweets pictures of his friends with the label #creepyguyfaketextingpic and jokes with his teammates, but always makes time to promote non-profits and charities.  He shows his fans what a fun and genuine guy he must be, which makes me love him even more... as if that's possible.  I also love his BFF (and one of the Jets newest wide receivers) @smcknight21.
@NFL - If you are a fan of football, you have to follow @NFL. However, if you are like me, you get the NFL updates via text already, so sometimes the updates are redundant.  Oh well.  I'd rather get an update 12 times than not get it at all.
@extraseats - This guy has tickets to 49ers, Jets and Cowboys games and usually his prices are pretty good.  He's also got tickets for a bunch of baseball and hockey teams, should you want to find cheap games to go to.
@CoachJeffFisher - I just stumbled upon his Twitter account and my heart sang with joy.  Looks like he hasn't really gotten into tweeting yet, but give him time.  This is a great man, people.  Soon, I'm sure, he'll be spitting out words of wisdom left and right.  


Other accounts I follow that I don't necessarily like or dislike, I just follow them because I like them as players: @C-Finnegan31 (Cortland Finnegan, Tennessee Titans), @Kaepernick7 (Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers), @ACromartie (Antonio Cromartie, New York Jets), @stephentulloch (Stephen Tulloch, Detroit Lions), and @AdamSchefter (Adam Schefter, ESPN NFL correspondent).


There are also people I've tried to follow, but couldn't handle either the amount or content of tweets. @chrisjohnson28's tweets are complete gibberish.  I'm sure someone understands him, but I'm not that person. @LarryFitzgerald's tweets are always about God or some preachy business, so I can't get down with that.  @ochocinco needs a life.  I get that Twitter is fun and exciting, but step away from the Twitter app on your phone, bro!  @kurt13warner is an asshole.  I only read his tweets once and they were making fun of other players.  Uh, you used to be homeless and your wife looks like a man, you have no room to criticize others, dick.


And that's all I've got for now!


xoxo,
Blanche Sanche

It's finally time to talk about it

I have posted a few entries since it happened, but I still feel incapable of appropriately summing up my feelings about the Jeff Fisher debacle in Tennessee via blog post.  It's finally time for me to discuss it.  Here goes nothing....

I will try to keep as much of my sentimentality toward Fisher to a minimum, as I've expressed my feelings for him before.  But I do have to say that this is the second saddest event to happen in my football-loving career.  The first obviously being the death of Steve McNair.  (The third, having to see Eddie George in a Cowboys uniform.)

I understand the need for change.  I understand that Fisher has only taken the franchise to the Super Bowl once.  I understand that Bud Adams is a crazy old man that Anna Nicole Smith would be marrying if she was still alive (R.I.P.)

HOWEVER, what I don't understand is why it all happened.  I think Fisher's inability to make more appearances in the Super Bowl was more about the lack of talent on the field and less about his coaching abilities.  I genuinely thought that with a new QB this year, the Titans would have a real shot at making it to the big game.

I should have seen the signs earlier.  Several of the members of the coaching staff were lured away, or fired, in the weeks leading up to Fisher's removal.  I guess an overhaul of staffing choices is how Adams thinks he's going to get a better team and I vehemently disagree.

Should Adams have let Fisher stay and keep his great coaching staff mostly intact, work on finding a new franchise QB and work on the connection between the QB and the receivers, it could have been magic.  Instead, they have to start from scratch, building trust between a new coaching staff and quarterback at the same time.

Now rumors are spreading that Fisher is meeting with the Eagles for a coordinator position.  I disapprove of that move for several reasons.  Fisher is too good to be a coordinator; he needs to be the main man, the one calling the shots.  Secondly,  I don't want him anywhere near Michael Vick.  Sure, he's all reformed now or whatever, but I don't think dog killers deserve to be coached by my coach.  Third, Jeff needs a break.  This last year really took a toll on him and I think he deserves a year off before another team has the privilege of calling him their head coach.

As big of a hole as a year without Jeff Fisher will leave in my heart, I'd rather give him the time to recoup from the clusterfuck that was the 2010 season so that the next team gets him at his best.  Maybe I will use my free flight that I was going to use to see the Titans in Tennessee to go find Fisher in Montana instead.

Jeff is my BFF,
Blanche Sanche

Speechless

Are you effing kidding me, Titans?  Here I am, sitting at my desk, playing skeeball on my phone, when I get a text from NFL.com alerting me that Jeff Fisher will not be returning as the head coach next year.

Tears are in my eyeballs as I type.

I thought we had worked this out.  Vince Young is out and we keep Jeff Fisher.  You were supposed to keep him, Bud.  Did you forget that?

I literally feel my loyalty to the Titans slipping through my fingers.  I'm terribly sad and I have nothing left to say today.  I'm going to go home, curl up in a ball, and listen to "Broken Hearted"* by Brandy and Wanya Morris while I cry, clutching a picture of Jeff Fisher to my heart.

Done,
Blanche Sanche

*Broken Hearted


Only, broken hearted, life's not over, I can start again,
but I'm lonely, broken hearted, it's a hurting thing to get
over.

I'm young but I'm wise enough to know, that you don't fall in love
overnight.
That's why I thought if I took my time, that everything in love
would be right.
But as soon as I closed my eyes, I was saying to love - goodbye.

But I guess I'm

Only, broken hearted, life's not over, I can start again,
but I'm lonely, broken hearted, it's a hurting thing to get
over.

No more empty conversation, next time I will be totally sure,
Don't want the pain of falling in and out of love, it's more than
my poor heart should endure.
So I listen to all advice, and remember each time I cry

but I guess I'm

Only, broken hearted, life's not over, I can start again, but
I'm lonely, broken hearted, it's a hurting thing to get over
(repeat)

So I listen to all advice, and remember each time I cry....

Only, broken hearted, life's not over, I can start again,
but I'm lonely, broken hearted, it's a hurting thing to get
over.

Never gonna be alone again, that's why I asked you to be my
best friend, boy you know you're always on my mind, I think
about you all the time, I'm only

Only, broken hearted, life's not over, I can start again,
but I'm lonely, broken hearted, it's a hurting thing to get
over.

And the happiness keeps comin' in!

It's official:  Vince Young is out and Jeff Fisher is in!!!!!!!!

For weeks, speculation over the Titans feuding quarterback and coach has consumed my life.  Would Bud Adams' hard-on for VY finally win out over the 16 years of loyalty by Fisher or would he see that his beloved quarterback was nothing but an overgrown baby?

On  Wednesday, after a looooong day of meetings (and me successfully avoiding work by furiously checking every sports website I could think of), it was announced that the Titans would be looking for a new quarterback.  I literally jumped out of my seat!  For 3 years, I've been patiently waiting for the club to tell me we were getting rid of VY.  From his "disappearance" that led everyone to worry he was going to commit suicide to his bar fights, Vince Young's off-field antics are better known than his on-field game play.  He whines that he's not given enough trust, but hasn't done anything to earn it.  I'm just glad Bud Adams finally came to his senses and realized that he's never going to win a Super Bowl with a quarterback who doesn't inspire complete confidence in his teammates, coaches, staff and fans.

But, even after the press release Wednesday, Fisher's job was still up in the air.  Well, not really.  I mean, it was blatantly obvious that with Vince gone, Coach Fisher was still going to have a job with the Tennessee Titans.  Especially after the Cowboys, and the 49ers, had replaced their head coaches.  Today, we finally got the sweet confirmation we were waiting for and I get to keep my "happy place" for at least another year!

Now the question becomes: who is our next quarterback?  Doubtful that we will get anyone good out of the draft (except maybe Colin Kaepernick, who is my personal favorite), we are now looking to veterans that have been ousted by their teams.  I have chosen who I trust enough to be our new QB and it is...

That's right friends.  I'm choosing Kyle Orton.  He's not much to look at, which is a downer for a girl like me, but he had a record breaking season with the Broncos and I think he'd be a great fit in Tennessee.  I think he's perfectly seasoned (unlike Donovan McNabb, who is a little too old to be our franchise QB) and has a lot of effort left to give.  I can only imagine how great it would be for a Orton/Britt and Orton/Moss mash-up for our offense.  Throw Chris Johnson in that mix and I feel an unstoppable combination!  Broncos, you keep Tim "Jesus Is My Homeboy" Tebow and I'll take K-Ort off your hands.  Thanks.

Happy Friday is an understatement!
Blanche Sanche

Ode to Jeff Fisher

 I love Jeff Fisher. I have loved him since I became a Titans fan in 2000. So these persistent rumblings of him leaving the Titans to coach for the Cowboys make me sick to my stomach. I awoke to yet another "source" claiming that this scenario is likely to happen this year.

It's almost enough to make a girl cry.

The Cowboys are in a three-way tie for my least favorite team in the league (along with the Patriots and Raiders) and there is nothing that I can make myself do to like them. When Eddie George went to the Cowboys, I was hurt. Eddie, Steve McNair and Fisher are the three men who made me fall in love with the Titans. To have Fisher go to Dallas will break my heart.

I have this fantasy (my proverbial "happy place" if you will) where I'm hanging out with Jeff Fisher, having a BBQ in his back yard that inexplicably backs up to water and has a boat dock. We sit, drink beer, talk about all the great things he's seen during his coaching career and I listen as he fondly remembers Steve. Sometimes Eddie is there too. We hop on his boat and go out into the water; they fish and I make them laugh. It's a jovial time had by all and, though I know it could never happen in reality, a part of me still believes it.

If Jeff goes to Dallas, my happy place is gone.

Blanche Sanche