My apologies to all of you who haven't been able to get on with your lives because I haven't recently blogged...I've been bogged down recently by a number of things, I'm about to give you my lame excuses but first, recognize that I just used blogged and bogged in very nearly the same sentence.. I threw a surprise party recently for someone and we got 'em...not easy to pull off...first, you have to give a month or so of lead time to allow guests to make travel plans...these people are all super close with the person being surprised so that combination of time and constant contact usually leads to someone spilling the beans...didn't happen this time...always great to see the face on the person you are surprising...I hope every one of you have at one time had someone throw you a surprise party...I did, just over 15 years ago before I was leaving New York City to join ESPN...it was such a strange feeling looking around the room and knowing every single person from every phase of your life and the amazing part is they don't know each other...and you realize that you are the common denominator... very bizarre...anyway, good surprises are great... I recently shot a few scenes in a new movie...that's pretty cool...before you ask what part did I play, let me stop you, I'm not an actor...so I played me...which is awesome considering I cant mess it up...if I do, I probably would've messed it up in real life because I'm me...the movie is called "Tooth Fairy"...and yes it has a hockey flavor and stars Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Sheckler...Ashley Judd and Julie Andrews are also in it but my scenes always seem to be with the leading man, never the leading lady...it's my 5th cameo (not including "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" in which you see and hear me on TV...they never contracted me therefore I'm guessing no residual checks)...in reality it has nothing to do with my acting ability (just check out the ringer) it's really just a matter of making friends with good guy producers who put their pals in their movies because they can...in my next role I'm looking to branch out, I don't want to be type-cast...maybe something in the next James Bond flick...the Bond theme music is my ring tone on my cell phone... And now to sports...is this football's most unpredictable season ever?...we say that every season...but...the ups and downs in the nfl are particularly troubling while being terribly exciting at the same team...every week there are at least 2 shockers...I know the cowboys didn't have Tony Romo, so is that why they lost by 20 to the rams...how about monday night, I know the patriots don't have Tom Brady, so how did they beat the 1st place broncos 41-7?...As for college, USC looked like they would never lose and they did, its seems like the top ranked school gets knocked off every Saturday...now to me its much more understandable when it happens in the college game...why?...because its the college game...these are college kids who understandably are easily distracted by everything and anything outside of football...again, that's ok, they're in college...my focus at SUNY Oswego wasn't always what it should've been and I didn't have 100,000 fans watching my every move or even checking to see if I could wake up in time to make a noon class...but how do you explain the NFL...it's become such a week to week, game to game league and these are paid professionals, many of whom are in their 30's and have tons of experience, but where is the consistency...just when you think you know something about an NFL team you realize you know nothing...you should be able to count on a good team being good every week but you cant...very frustrating...but that's where the expression "on any given Sunday..." came from... And lastly, I'll let you in on a little inside SportsCenter joke...you ever notice how every time one of us mentions Tampa or Tampa Bay we always closely follow it with "St.. Petersburg"...in recent months, the majority of mail, e-mail and voice-mails I've received all have the same message...that while they are the Tampa Bay Rays they play in St.. Pete...people down there are very serious about this matter so we give it its due...sort it...you have been heard...and on the topic, good for them...that's all I want to see is a community who cares about their team...and they do...so glad to see the rays in the world series...it sends the right message to all of baseball that there's another way to field a competitive team other than just writing a check to pay off your luxury tax...and I love seeing different teams win...otherwise its gets stagnant, boooooorrrrrrrinnnnng...nothing boring about a rays/phillies world series...and it should give hope to other perennial losers...like for example, the lions or royals...wouldn't it be fun if Detroit's football team and K.C.'s baseball team returned to their glory days...youngsters among you wondering if they ever had glory days...well, yes, they have...look it up...I would but you see how busy I am making surprise parties and major motion pictures...

back from turkey...miss me?...even notice i was gone?...no, of course not, exactly what i thought...anyway i highly recommend cruises...i've now been on 2 of them...the beauty is you wake up in a different place every morning without having to pack, unpack, taxi, plane, train, etc...the food on cruises, out of control, casino on board, piano bar, what else could you want...and that's without ever leaving the ship... i got off the ship a few times...nearly backed off a cliff while driving a 4x4 jeep in greece...that was before i ordered a bloody mary at a local beach front bar...they looked at me like i was crazy, the locals said they only knew about bloody mary's for breakfast from the movie "leaving las vegas"...the only role nicolas cage played that you don't want to be compared to..istanbul was unbelievable...the bargaining at the grand bazar was crazy...we were told in advance to expect to wind up paying about 25% of their original offer...got off the ship in romainia too, nothing to report there... so it was back to work feeling refreshed when linda cohn brought up an interesting topic while we were preparing for SportsCenter...by the way, linda's book "cohn-head" will be available at a bookstore near you september 9th, buy 2 copies in case you lose 1..linda was asking others working on the show if they were still real fans of the teams they grew up with or because we are in the business has it changed them...linda, admittedly in the minority, still has tons of passion for her teams...me, i've kind of hardened over the years...not so sure i'm happy about that but that's the way it goes... when i had my first internship in the business with steve malzberg at wabc radio in new york, we would sit in the press box at yankee and shea stadium and i would hear the older members of the media just grumble...they couldn't wait for the game to be over and they didn't care how it ended...and the only thing to them better than a fast game was a rain out...really bothered me, swore to never get that way...it was a business to them, their job, they wanted to get home to their families after work like everybody else...somewhat understandable when you look at it that way... the only time i feel that way, honestly, is when I'm doing the late SportsCenter and the padres and astros decide to play 20 + innings...of course the game was in san diego so it was a west coast start and with that ballpark and those 2 offenses there's very little chance of the anyone hitting a home run...i'm here until 3 AM every night anyway but 5 AM is a bit much...not to go off on a tangent here but how come the farve type stories always break after 1 AM...why cant all the investigative reporters get their sources to commit around 9 pm..that would be nice... slightly off track there for a while...i still have passion for sports...but it's not the same as it was for the teams i grew up rooting for...couple of factors there...first, after you see your favorite team win a championship, after not winning for, say 54 years as an example, (ny rangers) it's different...everything changes...i believe red sox fans after 2004 would agree, the next one just isn't the same... so after winning, after getting older, after working in the business for so long, it's just different...when you're a kid, the player you hate the most is traded to your team and you instantly love him...so in essence you are rooting for laundry, the jersey or uniform that your team wears...its really not so much about the person...but now for me, after having met and formed relationships with some of these players, you stop rooting for teams and start rooting for individuals to do well...it's a maturing kind of thing...that being said, i'd love to see the ny jets win a super bowl before i'm done...why ? go back to my factors for a refresher, the winning part...they haven't since 1969...i was 4...hard to remember much... but i still love the games...that's the reason i got into the biz...i hate agent, cba, steroid, etc. talk...it's part of my job so i do it...but i'm all about the games, the theatre, the drama...it's the best...and if you ever see me someplace other than on espn, it'll probably be at a ballpark, stadium, court or rink near you... nothing better for me than going to a game i not working at... until next time...

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