I forgot that people used to smoke indoors

I did not think signs like this existed.

I went to Foxwoods last night, and apparently Casinos are the last buildings in the universe that still allow smoking.  I hadn't been to one in years, and it totally caught me by surprise.  I legitimately had no idea that was even a possibility; I guess I just sort of assumed that nobody smoked indoors anymore.  Anywhere.  Ever.

It was crazy, just a giant cloud all over the place.  My clothes, hair, and even the whiskers on my face stunk afterwards.  How did human beings function as a people back when smoking occurred everywhere?

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Rondo's streak out, Brady's streak in

We keep track of sports statistics because they make the games more fun to watch; especially when they involve our favorite players approaching all-time records.  Tom Brady has thrown a touchdown pass in 43 consecutive regular season games.  It's the 3rd longest run of it's kind in the history of the NFL (Johnny Unitas 48, Drew Brees 54).

I haven't paid that much attention to it though, because up until last night, Brees' record was active as well.  For nearly two months Brady has extended his streak each week, but gotten no closer to the mark that Brees kept increasing.  Yesterday the Falcons held Brees touchdown pass-less.  Brady could set a new standard 12 games from now.  Oddly enough, the day after Rajon Rondo's near record streak ended, Tom Brady's fell into the spotlight.

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Crazy night at the Garden, and my take on the end of "the streak"

Really the only good thing that happened at the Garden last night for Celtics fans was a courtside appearance from local Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast Ali Raisman.  I can only do so much with my cell phone from the 15th row, but I promise that's her:

Boston didn't play well.  Multiple guys left with injuries (Courtney Lee, Jeff Green, and "sick" Chris Wilcox).  And the "fight" that got Rajon Rondo ejected (and now suspended for two games) also brought an end to his 37 game streak of double digit assists.  Right after the melee the scratches on Kris Humphries' left shoulder were clearly visible from the stands:

Now here's my thoughts on the streak: While it's a cheap way for it to finish, it's certainly memorable. I'm not going to forget the "Brooklyn Brawl Game" anytime soon.  And Rondo's near record will always have an asterisk of sorts attached to it, but in a good way.  While he may not have been able to break Magic Johnson's 46 game mark, we'll always be able to wonder, speculate, and hope/assume that he could have.  Not to mention the fact that being tied with John Stockton for #2 on an all-time list behind Magic is nothing to complain about.

And from a basketball fan point of view, I'm kind of relieved that it's over.  Rooting for assists is unnatural, it doesn't fit well into the dynamic of the game.  Now I can go back to being exciting when Rondo makes spectacular drives to the hoop, or knocks down open jumpers.  It was not a good feeling to be slightly disappointed every time he didn't pass.

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Awesome Old Song of the Week: The "Gummi Bears" theme song

Ok, I'm going way outside the box on this one.  While with my family last week for Thanksgiving, I was involved in a discussion of our favorite children's songs.  I said that even though it was just a TV theme song, Gummi Bears still ranked as one of my top choices.  Not to mention the fact that the program itself was my #1 pick of cartoons as a kid.  Here's the original intro from show, which aired on NBC Saturday mornings from 1985-1989.

Now this is really weird.  While searching youtube for the song just now, I found out that Alicia Keys performed the Gummi Bears theme last Wednesday on the Jimmy Fallon Show; the very same night that I was talking about it.

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Reason #244 why Walmart can be a scary place

A couple weeks ago I was feeling a little uncomfortable standing in line at Walmart.  This sign did not help:

That's all for today, I spent most of my afternoon writing "How the C's are overcoming their poor defense" for CelticsLife.com.

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Stats that suggest the Patriots are the best team in the NFL, by a large margin

Turnovers can be lucky, but the numbers are staggering.

New England has the fewest turnovers of any NFL team, 8.  They also have the second most takeaways, 32.  The combination of these makes their differential +24, which is 84.6% better than the Bears' second best +13.

A big reason for this is the fact that Tom Brady has been intercepted just 3 times out of 421 pass attempts, a league leading 0.7% (by comparison Arizona Cardinals backup Ryan Lindley has 4 INT's in only 72 attempts, 5.6%).  It's 85.7% better than the #2 QB on the list, Robert Griffin III, and his 1.3% ratio.  Brady is also on pace to break a record in that department for a full season, a mark he set in 2010 at 0.8%.

The Patriots are averaging a league high 37 points per game, which is 24.5% better than the second most prolific scoring team, Houston, with 29.7 PPG.

Because of this the Pats have outscored their opponents by an NFL best 163 points, which is 34.7% better than San Francisco, who ranks #2 at +121.

And as I have said repeatedly, New England's 3 losses are by a total of 4 points.

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Journalism failure with the kid who scored 138 points in a game

Went for a record in lieu of playing basketball.

Last Tuesday night when I got home from work I was very surprised by the lead story on the 2 am Sportscenter.  It was about a kid who scored 138 points in a Division III college basketball game.  The only video they had available looked as if it was shot from a cell phone, and there was very little information given about the game itself.  Even though it was an NCAA record for points by a single player, it didn't feel right to me that espn led with it.  It seemed far too ridiculous a story to just accept without wondering how it happened.

The next afternoon, one of the headlines on espn.com featured this article about how impressed Lebron was by the kid's 138 points.  As I read through it, a single bit of information mentioned almost as an afterthought completely blew me away.

"The previous Grinnell record was 89 by Griffin Lentsch last Nov. 19 against Principia."

Um, what?  How could espn report something like that so casually without questioning the oddity of it?  A kid scores 138 points in a game, and ho hum, a year ago a different kid on the same team had an 89 point night?  And that doesn't make you curious how?

Deadspin posted a story explaining what really happened.  Basically, the coach and team went into the game with the intention of breaking a record.  Grinnell didn't really play defense.  In fact, a player on the other team scored 70 points because they repeatedly gave him open layups.  And the kid who set the record rarely went back on defense at all, he just waited on the other side of the court for his teammates to pass him the ball.  Here's a youtube clip of all his baskets; you can see at the 4:19 mark that he's just standing there under the hoop.  Grinnell also substituted freshman bench players into the game solely for the purpose of fouling to stop the clock, put the other team on the free throw line, and get the ball back so the kid could score more.

And then there's this: Grinnell's opponent, Faith Baptist Bible College, is a school of just 330 students that's not even a member of the NCAA.  None of this would have been remotely possible against anything even resembling legitimate competition.

Ryen Russillo of espn seemed to agree with me on his show that maybe the story wasn't covered properly.  I sent him this tweet with a few of the kid's stats, which he read live on the air:

@ryenarussillo @svpandrussillo Agree 1000% How about 0 assists? And 28 of 71 3's, 38%. Just averaging shooting on a stupid number of shots.
— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) November 21, 2012

So here's my point: This shouldn't have been reported as "wow, look at the amazing accomplishment!"  This was more of a "wow, look at the crazy/funny thing that happened" type of story.  It wasn't headline news, it was the squirrel on water skis video clip you see at the end of the broadcast that makes people laugh and go to bed happy.

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