Is hunting a sport?

Hunting started off as a food source back when the Cavemen hunted dinosaurs, I’m guessing. It’s hard to consider hunting as a sport when a fat beer guzzler blows the head off Bambi taking a drink of water out of the stream, while wearing an orange vest. That same fat beer guzzling S.O.B. can roll a ball down the lanes at bowling alley and that is a sport. Fishing derbies can give fishermen a challenge based on the size of the catch or quantity. What about a snake wrangler? Guys that hunt Pythons in the everglades. Some catch these pythons that can average 6-9 ft long with their bare hands. I would have to classify the annual Everglades Python Hunt as a sport as they award prize money and it does the swampy land of Florida good to prevent it being decimated by this invasive species.

Burmese Pythons were originally brought to the United States as pets during the 1970’s. When little Johnny’s pet got bigger than the dog, parents probably thought they should release the snake into the wild. Seem like a great idea at the time to release these foreign snakes into the Everglades. Suddenly these snakes multiply in their new habitat, causing problems to the Everglades Ecosystem. Burmese Pythons have no predators. These snakes feed on reptiles, birds, even mammals such as raccoons and white tail deer. As part of the state of Florida eradication program, they invite professional and even amateur hunters to come to the Everglades and remove Pythons for cash prizes. Since the year 2000 the State of Florida has estimated they have eliminated 17,000 Pythons. Perhaps St. Patrick would of been the way to go as the legendary saint removed all the snakes from the old sod of Ireland centuries ago.

Imagine some of these snake wranglers look like Crocodile Dundee. The Everglades Python Hunt has 850 people across the country including Canada that compete for prize money. The grand prize is $10,000 for whatever snake wrangler can remove the most pythons in ten days. Other prizes include size of the beast , and remember some of these Pythons can be Anaconda sizes. That’s a lot of Everglades for these snakes to be munching on to get that big.

Trying to track these Burmese Pythons in the dark swamps where some of these snake wranglers have their hunt down to a science. Some of these wranglers snatch the Python behind the head to avoid getting bitten. Then put it in cloth bag from which I’m sure it fights to get out as you tie the knot. Some wranglers will wait later on to kill the snake with a BB gun. Some might whack the snake right in the bag on the head with some kind of rock, bat, mallet, whatever soothes the hunters fatality of the slithery species. Every one has a talent of some kind and some use this gift to earn money. Snake wranglers compete against each other with the eye of the tiger and like in any sport try to find the edge to do their hunt the best way. They work on their skills and fine tune them to get better as I can see the Everglades Python hunt being a intense competition. All these Pythons don’t go to waste. You think they could make some kind of wallet or shoes out of the snake skin. Some of these Pythons appear on the cooking menus in Florida and probably in other states as well. Snake tacos anyone?

Deshaun Watson will be the villain at every stadium he visits when he is allowed to participate. Watson, in his season debut in his new Browns uniform, was heavily booed by his existence on the field in Jacksonville, Florida. This in a pre-season game, you would think that the city of Jacksonville which has a team that does not have the following to even start their own choir on a church, on Sunday. The Jaguar fans made their presence known how much Watson will not be well received in each visiting stadium. Watson will be like the Houston Astros when he visits other stadiums. The Houston Astros already know their judge, jury and the executioner. The fans have made their decision about them cheating in the game of baseball. The sexual predator quarterback will be a very easy target. Watson will be suspended this season for at least 6 games after which an independent arbiter Sue L Robinson looked at all the cases against Deshaun and gave her ruling to the NFL. The NFL thought the ruling was weak and now have turned the Watson drama over to a former New Jersey attorney general. The commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, is looking for a full season suspension for Watson. The Watson camp wants to pay a fine, make it a maximum 8 games, brush the rest of this sexual rampage under the rug, and call it a day. Now Deshaun Watson fate lies in the hands of Peter C Harvey. I do know it is not Harvey Dent out of Gotham City, but Peter could possibly be like Dent looking for full justice in the situation.

Deshaun Watson escaped the Houston courtroom without any charges criminally. Watson has voiced his innocence throughout most of this. Watson was not out of the woods yet just because he is not facing jail time for his role in his sexual escapades. Many civil suits followed him to Cleveland after the Texans traded their quarterback. Watson has paid 23-24 of those civil suits with women he gets to go away as one is still looming in the air. On Friday, Watson apologized to the Cleveland organization about the baggage he has brought with him to Ohio. Then just like out of the handbook following step by step, Watson apologized to the women he impacted throughout all of this.

“Look. I want to say that I’m truly sorry to all the woman that I impacted in this situation. The decisions that I made in my life that put me in this situation, I would definitely like to have back, but I want to continue to move forward and grow and learn and show that I am a true person of character and I am going to keep pushing forward.”

Sue L Robinson, in her report as the former Federal judge, concluded that Watson violated the league’s personal conduct policy. Robinson used words to describe Deshaun Watson such as egregious and predatory. She said Watson hardly showed any remorse. The Browns read her conclusion and Watson suddenly apologized to all the women he hurt. Not buying what Watson is selling or the Cleveland Browns organization, who look like sly Dawgs only paying Deshaun a million dollars this season, as they knew like everyone else a suspension of some kind was looming from the league. Many of the other teams in the league are foaming at the mouth like a crazed dog over how the Browns orchestrated this trade with Houston. Will the Browns get the last laugh?

Deshaun Watson did not play the entire year last season. Watson was paid and was on the Texans roster but was told to stay away. Even though Watson wanted to stay away and be traded away from the Texans before all the shit hit the fan with his pervie ways with these women massage therapists. Watson wanted the Texans to ask him what they should do about the current state of the team at the time. Watson wanted to say who the Texans hire as head coach and General manager. Obviously that blew up in both the Texans franchise and Watson’s face. Houston was fined by the NFL for letting Watson prey on his victims with the company card. Houston would pay off the fine and say they had nothing to do with Watson’s actions. In the end, Watson gets traded out of Houston. Texans get some draft capital and now can wash their hands of this Watson saga for good.

Browns wanted to get Deshaun Watson some live game action in the pre-season. Watson did not have all his weapons in his arsenal in his first game back since the end of the 2020 season that went into 2021. Some of his play makers were not suited up for the Browns’ first pre-season clash versus the Jaguars. Watson’s performance was horrible. Watson would fumble a snap and ended up 1-5 for 7 passing yards versus the Jaguars. Watson looked like the Tin Man trying to knock off the rust from the Wizard of Oz. Fans yelling all kinds of obscenities at him. He’s a guy not used to the jeers but the cheers. The girls giving him a massage doing their job did not think their day would end with something like being jerked at and getting sprayed at by the dirty lizard at the end of the session. The Dawg pound might not get what they thought they would from this trade, an actual quarterback. The Browns are a good team and can be a playoff team. If Watson gets the full suspension this year, Browns will need another plan. If Watson does have to sit out a second year, I think the Browns will regret this move. Especially a guy missing two years of his prime not playing the game. The draft capital always will hurt a team, especially if they can’t hit on picks in other rounds due to not being the first. Then the guarantee of 230 million dollars. The future salary cap to keep players to help surround your overpriced quarterback. Plus the side show Watson will have to deal with when the rest of his career, teammates will be asked questions about the guy that can’t keep it in his pants. Do I have to say the track record the Browns have had at the quarterback position? I think this trade the Browns made has alienated some of their fan base already. Cleveland is the city that welcomed Lebron James back to town after taking his talents to South Beach.

The Browns will have to tranquilize their new Dawg with the city of Cleveland hosting the National Massage Therapist convention. Anything that comes out of Houston, look for clever signs at a stadium near you when the Cleveland DAWG show comes to your town. Just make sure the goose does not get loose.

The Chicago Blackhawks franchise continues to sink into the old tar pits of the dinosaur age. Once a dynasty not that long ago, the Blackhawks won three Stanley Cups from 2010-15. It was a dynasty created after the old man died. Bill Wirtz had his hockey franchise playing in the dark ages. One of the worst franchises in sports. Bill’s son, Rocky Wirtz, took over and brought the Indian head back to life with a franchise makeover. Solid draft picks. Getting in touch again with the fan base. Most importantly, showing the new generation of fans that hockey was played in Chicago. Since hoisting that last Stanley Cup, the Blackhawks have been free falling. Some of the core of the dynasty is still playing and has not been traded away. The off the ice scandal. The wicked town hall meeting at which the owner had foot in the mouth disease. The latest in this soap opera that continues at the Mad House on Madison is the Seattle Kraken getting their tentacles on long time announcer, a home town guy, Eddie Olczyk. You’ve got to be Kraken me… an expansion team swooped in and gave our guy the money and the years to broadcast games in the state of Washington as the brass of the Blackhawks are scratching their behinds in disbelief.

In Chicago we love our sports announcers who paint the picture of the product every night and give us the insight on the state of the franchise. Eddie Olczyk was on our TV sets for 16 seasons which had three Stanley Cup winners. Last season, Eddie’s partner in crime, Pat Foley retired from the announcer booth and he was a Chicago fixture. Some say the Blackhawks forced Foley out of the booth, who was replaced by Chris Vosters. Foley once was fired by the Blackhawks when Bill Wirtz ran the show as his liquor distributor company was more important than the team on the ice. Rocky Wirtz would bring back Pat Foley after his father had passed away. Foley and Olczyk would form one of the best announcing duos in Chicago sports history. In bad seasons, which the Blackhawks better get used to, good announcers keep your fans watching more. Last few years have been miserable. Foley and Olczyk would make the pain ease off. When things were going great for the Blackhawks, those two were the guys that painted the picture that made you get off the edge of your seats to high five your friend with the excitement from calling the play by play.

The Blackhawks said they had a verbal agreement with Eddie Olczyk. Eddie’s people and the Blackhawks were in negotiations to hammer out an extension. Why did it take so long? Why would you have a hometown guy, a former player and one of your faces of your franchise, sit home and stew. Olczyk went to Brother Rice High School, the same school I did on the southside of Chicago. Olczyk is a guy from the South suburbs in the Chicago land area. Blackhawks drafted him in 1984. Olczyk played 16 years in the NHL with the first three seasons wearing the Indian head sweater. Olczyk’s second stint with the Blackhawks was the last two years of his playing career. Olczyk scored 77 goals while dishing out 122 assists playing in 322 games for the Blackhawks. In between the bookends of his Chicago hockey career, Olczyk would play in over 1,000 NHL games as he also suited up for the Maple Leafs, Jets, Kings, Penguins, Kings, and helped the Rangers win a cup in 1994.

In Chicago, we can still see Eddie Olczyk do National hockey broadcasts on TNT this upcoming season. We can also see Olczyk tell his opinion on what sweaty animal will win the Kentucky Derby as he does horse racing coverage on NBC. If we feel like it, we could just get the NHL package and watch Eddie Olczyk cover the Seattle Kraken games with John Forslund, a guy he teamed up with on NBC games. Blackhawks will be very bad for the next few seasons as we will watch the end of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews skating their games at the United Center in the Indian head sweater. Blackhawks seem like they either fly high and soar with eagles or hit rock bottom. Nothing seems ever to be in the middle. It always takes this franchise a very long time to get out of the bottom of the barrel where they are sinking past the fossils of the Ice age. It’s because they do stupid stuff like chase away things that are not broken like their TV coverage. I will not buy the Blackhawks saying “We thought we had an oral agreement in place.” The Blackhawks dropped the ball on something that should have taken five minutes to hammer out a deal. You watch Seattle. They are still an expansion team, but they are making solid moves to bring a guy like Eddie Olczyk to make their broadcasts stronger. Eventually Seattle Kraken will have the product on ice to win games. The Blackhawks, in the meantime, will still be trying to figure things out.