More (long overdue) Sunday Musings

It's been a while since I blogged and I've got a lot on my mind, so here goes:

• I'm ecstatic with the Ravens' decision to hire John Harbaugh as their new head coach. I love how they are thinking outside the box with this hire - not hiring an offensive or defensive coordinator. A lot of terrific head coaches were special teams coaches at some point in their careers - Bill Cowher, Marv Levy, and Bill Belichick to name a few. And Harbaugh has done an outstanding job of hiring a coaching staff with Rex Ryan and Cam Cameron as coordinators. Now the Ravens need to find a QB.

• I'm very pleased with the O's decision to trade Erik Bedard for 5 prospects. The O's weren't going to win over the next 2 seasons with Bedard and he showed no desire to sign an extension with the O's to avoid free agency after '09. So, for the first time in forever, the O's did the smart thing and traded him for a boatload of young talent that can help the O's become contenders in '10 or '11. Andy McPhail is off to a good start in Baltimore. Now hopefully he'll be allowed to finish the job.

• Not only am I disgusted with the cheating of IU's head basketball coach, but now I'm disgusted with the student behavior at games. The constant "Bull----" chants were bad enough but the "F--- you refs" chants at the UConn game were downgrade disgraceful. Unfortunately, poor sportsmanship at college basketball games is now "cool", thanks to ESPN's glorification of the Duke students. I have no problem in creating a home court advantage and being very loud but I do have a problem with constantly belittling, booing, and cursing the opposing team and refs. You can call it "funny" or "witty" all you want but it also reflects poorly on the students and the university. Cheer hard but cheer with class.