So I just got a ticket to the Browns/Ravens game this Sunday. I was supposed to drive to Columbus to see the LA Galaxy play the Crew, but I’m just not up for the drive – especially without Beckham playing. Plus, frankly, as long as Grabavoy (or as I like to call him, Grabaseatonthebench) starts, the Crew don’t have a fighting chance. He’s the worst player I’ve ever had to pay to watch.

Anyway, Ticketmaster still had tickets available at $32/ticket for upper level, so I figured, “why not?”. It’s a much shorter drive, the Crew are basically out of the playoffs, Beckham most likely won’t be at the game since his father just had a heart attack, I don’t have to risk missing the Ravens game in Columbus, it’s football season, and it’s not cold yet in Cleveland. I couldn’t talk myself out of it.

I just hope the Ravens win. It’s always a tough game against the Browns. I also hope that I don’t get murdered. I hear the Browns fans are brutal. Too bad Geoff won’t read this to tell me differently.

Here’s an email that I sent to NFLshop.com today. The basic rundown is that I purchased two authentic jerseys from their online store. Why? I wanted the real deal. I wanted the best quality, the comfort of knowing that I did “the right thing” even if it was wrong for my wallet. Okay? Okay. Ha ha. Please forward to your friends because NFLshop.com doesn’t deserve our hard-earned money until they improve their quality control…especially on $250 jerseys. Thanks for reading…and yes, I could’ve been a little nicer in the email, but whatever. I paid to be an asshole in it.

Hello,

I called customer service last night about the “customized” authentic Ravens jerseys that I ordered. Although the customer service representative was very nice and understanding, I was extremely unimpressed with the level of resolve I was left with after getting off of the phone – a 90% chance that I can’t return it, or in his precise words, “typically, 9 out of 10 times, we won’t allow a return on a customized jersey”. Wow. Thanks a lot.

My complaint was very simple. I had just paid nearly five hundred dollars for what I assumed was the best quality jerseys (2) that I could buy, and what do I get? Stitching that was worse than what I could’ve done in home economics class in 7th grade, and not even a hang tag to help assure that I had received the right product.

You can imagine the disappointment in waiting 8 days to get something you’ve been waiting to buy for years only to receive something that didn’t live up to the expectations. The simple fact that nflshop.com would even use a “vendor” who didn’t have an adequate quality assurance system in place is absurd. I happen to work for a very popular retail clothing company and even the stitching quality on our $15 t-shirts are better than what I received. Heck, the stitching on my Premier (EQT) jersey is 100 times better.

Then the icing on the cake is that I can’t return it because the jerseys are “customized”. So, I guess you’re saying that you’re allowed to use poor vendors, and if the quality sucks, us customers have to suck it up? Plus, on the site, I only had the option of choosing an Ed Reed alternate jersey. You know what? I already have that! Are you saying that because I wanted different options than the poor selection you offered that I have to pay the price in quality? Again, thanks for looking out for your customer!

If I drive down to Baltimore from Pittsburgh (my current residence), and walk into the team store at M&T Bank Stadium, am I going to get the same quality? Do you really think that they would hang such garbage on their jersey racks? That’s a serious question, by the way.

If you’re in the business of sending out poorly stitched products for $250+, I’m afraid to order anything else from you. What will I get if I buy a $20 hat, or a $60 sweatshirt? You have really dented my confidence in your store and products. I guess with the popularity of the NFL, you guys are just taking us fans and our money for granted. Not that you really care, but I will be posting this on my myspace page to let my friends know how nflshop.com has decided to run their business. What I’ve learned from my experience is this:

1) NFLshop.com’s limited selection of authentic jerseys (at least if you happen to be a Ravens fan) forces you to order a “customized” jersey (non-returnable!). That’s $250+ wasted, almost guaranteed.
2) According to the customer service representative that I spoke to last night, nflshop.com uses a vendor to customize their jerseys. Obviously, you put your trust in vendors that have no right touching “highest quality” products. It’s obvious that QA isn’t very important to nflshop.com. This vendor/nflshop.com relationship, or lack thereof actually makes me wonder if these are the same vendors selling authentic jerseys on eBay for 1/5 of the price. I could’ve saved a lot of money if I had known that nflshop.com didn’t watch their vendors closely.
3) You only have a whopping 10% chance to return the product once you’ve received it if it’s customized, regardless of your situation.
4) Customized authentic jerseys don’t come with hang tags, so I can’t even claim that I didn’t wear it when I try to return it or sell it for way less than I paid for on eBay, etc. I mean, how can I compete on eBay when my authentic that I purchased from nflshop.com has equivalent stitching to the so-called fakes (w/hang tags!)?

For as much money as you guys make on us fans, you would think that you would be better at using quality vendors and putting a more reasonable return/refund system in place. At the end of the day, I’ll probably just have to keep the jerseys because I don’t see the point in waiting for new ones to arrive knowing that they may have the same issues. I’ll forever have paid $500 for two jerseys for a team I love supporting and the experience of getting ripped off by nflshop.com. Live and learn. I guess you’re used to that complacency in us die-hard fans. Thanks for taking advantage of us.

I look forward to you guys completely ignoring this email.

Sincerely,
Will Hare

Well, if I thought last week was as bad as it would get, I definitely lacked foresight. I shot 152, 156, 138…a 149 average. That’s basically 50 pins lower than week one. Granted, we were in for a tough game giving a 205-pin handicap to the other team, but DAMN! We got completely swept off our asses with our most consistent bowler being the sole girl on our team.

Maybe it was from being tired from waking up at 4:30 AM to fly out of Chi-town, working a full day, and playing soccer before league, or maybe I just suck. Who knows, but with the crazy handicaps that we’re giving opponents each week, we’re in for a rough season. At least it’s a short one.

To be fair, Davis shot a 148 to end his night, so even good bowlers have some comically bad games from time to time. I plan on practicing a lot this week to get the feel back. The one good thing to take away from last night…a lower team average!

I left work around 5 on Friday to catch my flight to Chicago for a nice weekend out of town to relax and have some fun. It was a hectic weekend, but overall, I had a good time. Thanks Aaron and Suzy!

To begin, I got to eat at the Bongo Room again on Saturday morning, and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve been dreaming of their banana orea pancakes for weeks now, and I finally had a go at them. I felt like hell afterwards, but it was worth it. Sometimes you just have to enjoy food. Ha.

After breakfast my day really began. I had the experience of going to Wrigley for a Cubs/Pirates game. I think I would’ve liked the situation better if the Cubbies weren’t doing so well that the bandwagon all got off at the same Addison Red Line stop, but oh well. It was worth checking out. Cubs fans are okay, but I definitely met some real obnoxious ones who wouldn’t let it go that I was there supporting the floundering Pirates. Oh well. Fans are fans. At least I got to check out the piss-stench-filled Wrigley Field! The Pirates may be awful, but PNC Park is definitely a superior place to catch a game. Plus, $30 will get you the best seats in the house from a ticket guy outside at PNC, as opposed to the standing room only seats you get at Wrigley.

Then, Saturday night, I had the pleasure to hit the HoB to see the Roots perform with Skillz, MC Lyte, and Big Daddy Kane. The venue was nice, the sound was on-point, and, as usual, the Roots didn’t disappoint. Aaron and I had discussed our confusion of having MC Lyte involved in the whole affair, but she was actually really good. It was basically a night of the Roots playing a tribute to older hip-hop artists, and it was incredible. The crowd was really good, as well. I recommend to anyone, that if you get the chance to check the Roots out, don’t miss it. They are really a blast and I haven’t seen them do anything remotely predictable in the 3 times that I’ve seen them. Saturday night had a great vibe to it.

As a mini note of interest: We ate at a place called BB’s before the show. On my way out of the bathroom, I see the manager coming out of the kitchen, and he goes, “nothing like walking into your own kitchen and seeing Dennis Rodman in there”. I’m like, “Yeah?”, and I look to the left through the little window on the kitchen door. Sure enough, there’s this huge dude with bright yellow hair and piercings on a cell phone. Gotta love it. Rodman just kicking it in some small restaurant.

Anyway, on Sunday, we went to a place near Aaron’s that had the NFL Sunday Ticket so I could watch the Ravens game. It was called Cy’s Crab Shack or something. I figured crabs and a Ravens game would go perfect together. We get there, and although the food was decent (it shouldn’t be called anything with “crab” in the name), the setup was really cool. We were pretty much the only people there and had 4 televisions to ourselves with all the games on. It’s a really nice place and the manager was really pleasant. I’m definitely going there to watch games next time I’m in Chicago.

My weekend in Chicago ended at 4:30 this morning when I had to get up, get a shower, catch the plane at 6:45 (which I almost missed), just to get to work around 10. I like visiting Chicago, but I’m still not sold on life there. Pittsburgh was actually a pleasant place to return to – traffic and all…

Please, please, stop making nail-biters out of blowouts! Please? For the second straight week, the team decided to lay down when they had a 17-point lead. 17 points used to be all the team needed to win, but for whatever reason (age, idiocy, lack of endurance, etc.), this team is looking awful at finishing games off. Maybe Trevor Pryce is really the best player on the team…who knows, but we’ve been missing something the last two weeks, and I hope the team figures it out. With the way the Steelers are playing (against garbage teams or not), the Ravens are going to have to figure out how to play all 4 quarters if they want to win the division. To be fair, they looked dominating the first 2-3 quarters, Boller did a decent job, and Matt Stover got me a lot of points on Fantasy, but I don’t want the stupid stress of watching this potential disaster every week. Oh, and Figurs might be a beast. It’s too early to tell, but his punt return TD was really tight. Oh well. 2-1 is not that bad, and at least we haven’t looked like the Chargers.

As for my other NFL observations:

• Green Bay looks really good right now.
• Rex Grossman is just awful…no way around that one.
• The Steelers defense needs a real challenge, but they’re the only reason the Steelers are winning.
• Donovan McNabb should really just keep doing his talking on the field.
• Philly’s throwback jersey looked like DI-AA uniforms.
• Romo looks deserving of most of the hype (as well as being my starting fantasy QB over Rivers)
• Tom Brady has 10 TDs already. I know teams always lose a few…but when?
• Martyball must be sounding really good in San Diego at this point.
• Leinart isn’t quite ready…

So on Monday we had our second week of PSL bowling…and I really did blow it for the team. I essentially set myself up for failure this week by bowling a 198 average (waaaay above my norm) last week. Oops.

Anyway, with our opponents getting a 122-pin handicap every game, we had to step it up big time. I, unfortunately, didn’t bowl well until the third game. I bowled as bad as ever the first two games (124, 129), but then sort of woke up for the third (223).

The real bummer was that we lost the second game by just over 40 pins, I think, while I shot 70 below my average from the week before. Basically, I lost it for us. Ha. As I’m new to bowling, I’m not going to actually get down on myself, but hopefully I can start being a bit more consistent. Davis on the other hand tore me up (as expected).

On the Ravens/Jets game:
Thank god the Jets can’t catch the ball. Seriously. I think the Jets definitely lost the game a little more than the Ravens won it, but we’ll take it.

The Ravens were looking really good up until the 4th quarter, with Kyle Boller playing much better than I’ve seen for a long time. I might just be praising him for not fumbling the ball off of his knee when he ran and not throwing picks, but who knows. The guy really looked like he could manage the game enough for a win. The questionable play calling (going long on 1st down for a wasted play when we needed to grind out first downs to run the clock down, for example) may have assisted in his 2nd half falloff, but you can’t blame him for Billick’s ego telling him to go for more points. Hopefully the team continues to improve. I think the preseason camps were way too easy on the guys. The slow defense in the 4th quarter seemed to show either a team that’s not quite ready to play a full game, or a team that’s finally showing its age. Hopefully it’s the former and they’ll continue to play themselves into game shape…quickly.

Why I hate Big Ben and the Steelers:
I hate the Steelers. I truly do. And it’s mainly because of the fans inability to rate their overrated quarterback with objectivity. Look, if I really had the energy to prove my point, I’d go back and watch the game again and tally this estimate, but I swear that at least 13 of Ben’s 21 completions were throws that didn’t cross 2 yards past the line of scrimmage.

His 242 passing yards were mostly after the catch, which is fine, but he’s not as good as you people think. He’s a product of good play calling, excellent receivers running perfectly times screens and slants, and a solid defense that keeps the opponents defense on the field (hence, tiring them out).. Oh, and for all the bitching about how the O-line is always at fault for anything, let’s just be realistic and say that without his protection he’d suck (ala both Ravens games last year). When he was pressured yesterday, he under threw receivers and was off the mark. He’s only great when everything around him is perfect. The rest of the time, he’s quite average, so just admit it, so I can stop disliking you people so much.

Although, I guess we’re even. You think Ray jumps on the pile to pad his tackle statistics. I think Ben’s passing stats are padded by screen passes that his receivers turn into big yardage.

I love the Patriots. Ha:
Finally, the Patriots are ridiculously good and I really don’t care about the whole “cheating” thing and Bill Belichick’s involvement. Everyone knows that EVERY team is cheating somehow. Other teams need to get over their jealousy and hypocritical finger pointing. You know Mangini knew how the Patriots “cheated”…he used to work for Bill. It’s a bit odd that these two guys hate each other, Mangini is getting whooped on the field, so all of a sudden the Pats camera man is found out. Please. I’m not really into conspiracies, but I find it ridiculous that the NFL is making a huge deal out of this. I’m just glad the Pats destroyed what most are calling one of the big 4 in the AFC last night. Knowing the play calling still doesn’t explain the difference in athletic ability, Rivers sucking, and Brady being a complete monster…especially with Moss. If the Ravens can’t win it all, I want the Pats to do it. Why? I want Brady to win his 4th ring, and I want Steeler fans to quiver in anticipation of another team winning “one for the thumb”…especially the Pats.

Final note:
Great game Jamal Lewis. I’m still a big fan of his despite going to the Browns. I also really hope the Browns do well this year. Not too well, but they deserve a year with a lot less suck. I’d like to see Romeo stay so the club can keep some stability.

The Ravens were so incredibly awful tonight. My small list of annoyances:

1. If Musa Smith is running downhill all game, and McGahee is running nowhere, why use Willis to punch it in? On top of his lack of effectiveness as a runner, he was involved in 3 fumbles.
2. I will be happy to see Mike Anderson back next week.
3. Never let Boller throw on 3rd & goal…ever.
4. Todd Heap got completely ripped off on his pass interference call. Granted, the Ravens should’ve done a better job to not put themselves in a must-score situation by just finding a way to win earlier on, but that was such a lame call. Then the refs gave them an obvious “make up” call, which the Ravens failed miserably at putting away.
5. Football is a rough sport. Ha. This weekend has provided more injuries than I can ever remember.
6. Ed Reed is a beast. I was bowling and didn’t know who was running the punt back, but he was able to read the field and run it back for a TD. He’s still got it.

Tonight also marked my initiation into a bowling league. Davis and I decided to join a PSL league on Mondays at Arsenal Lanes. I have no idea how the handicap system works, but I just tried to bowl as well as I could (it may have cost us our first games). I ended up bowling my highest average (198) although I was inconsistent. I’m going to blame my second game score on my frustration at the Ravens game since it was playing on the television next to our lane. I bowled a 245, 155, 195. The 245 is my personal best and it was only my second clean game of my short time bowling (about 2 months now). I just hope that my good scores don’t kill us this week. Davis thinks they may have, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As a prelude to the bowling thing – I’ve probably bowled about 150 games (in 2 months) since I started trying to learn how to bowl with Coach Davis, so I guess the practicing is paying off. The first night we went bowling, I think I bowled a whopping 120 average. Although I won’t maintain a 198 average, a 70-80 pin increase is really cool to see…if only for a day. My more consistent average lately has been in the 180’s.