Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears

I heard this song in the background of a TV show the other night, but it also vaguely relates to the Patriots and the NFL playoffs.

The Pats are the champs right now, as well as the dominant team for the last decade-and-a-half.  The rest of the league is just trying to catch up.

From their 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair, here's Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

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Is January the best month of the year for internet dating sites?

January is the worst month of the year for bar business.  It's cold and nobody wants to go outside.  People are all partied out from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve.  Plus, everybody is exercising and trying to be healthy as part of their New Year's resolutions, which doesn't combine well with drinking.

The other night when I was at work, there were only eight people in the bar for most of the night.  When it's that empty, I can't help but hear the majority of the conversations.  Six of the eight people were clearly on first dates set up online.

That got me thinking, unlike the bar industry, January must be a booming month for dating websites.  Many single people are probably sad from being alone over the holidays, and in turn make resolutions to finally try searching via the internet.  It's also the time to lock something in before Valentine's Day.

This is the first half of a two-part blog inspired by the events of my recent slow evening at work.  Coming soon: "Do single guys in bars hate Uber?"


RELATED: If you're meeting a blind date in a bar, probably don't order lemonade


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A 12-4 record is great for most NFL teams, but average for the Patriots

The Patriots finished 2015 at 12-4.  It's the fourth straight 12-4 regular season campaign for New England.  On the right is the complete list of Pats records since 2001, the year Tom Brady took over as starting quarterback.

For the past 15 seasons, 12-4 is the average record for the Patriots--slightly below average actually, considering the numbers work out to 12.13 wins and 3.87 losses per year.

In 2015, New England's 12-4 mark was good enough to earn the No. 2 seed in the AFC.  According to My Top Sportsbooks, the Pats have 6/1 odds to win the Super Bowl, tied with the Panthers for second-best after the Cardinals at 5/1 (quick sidebar: Brady is also the top bet of any player at the moment to win the Super Bowl MVP at 15/1, just ahead of Carolina quarterback Cam Newton at 18/1 and Arizona QB Carson Palmer at 20/1).

Most teams would be thrilled to be where New England is at the moment, but for the Patriots it's just business as usual--for the last decade-and-a-half.

Here's where things get crazy: Over the 15-year span that the Pats have averaged slightly more than 12 regular-season wins, there are seven NFL franchises that have never won 12 games: Miami, New York (Jets), Buffalo, Cleveland, Oakland, Washington and Detroit.  Two more clubs, Arizona and Cincinnati, just won 12 for the first time since 2001 this year.


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The Rams should have to forfeit their championship in St. Louis as a penalty for moving back to L.A.

Vacated.

There are two points I'd like to make here:

1. I don't think major pro sports franchises should be allowed to move anymore.  It's no longer 1955 where the only way you can see Mickey Mantle is to go to a game at Yankee Stadium.

In 2016, you can be a fan of literally any team you choose and watch them play on a hand-held device from just about anywhere in the world.  The actual spot where franchises are located is becoming less and less important.  And I don't want to here about how "you need a big market to fill a stadium" blah blah blah.  There's one easy recipe that always draws fans to games, no matter the location: Have a good team.

Which brings me to my second point...

2. The Rams sold out 95 straight games in St. Louis from when they first moved there in 1995 through their peak Kurt Warner/Marshall Faulk years of the late 1990s/early 2000s.  Now they stink, things are bad, and they want out.  But that already happened once before, when they left Los Angeles in the first place.  And now they're going back there?  Are you kidding me?  They're like a spoiled little child who decides he doesn't like the toy he has and cries until he gets a different one, but then when he's given a new one he realizes the first one was better after all.

How is that OK?  Why not teach the Rams a lesson, NFL?  I don't think the league should've let them return in the first place, but since it is happening, there should at least be a penalty.  If I were the supreme leader/commander/all-powerful-being in charge of the NFL, I'd tell the Rams this:

"Oh, you don't like St. Louis anymore?  You want to move back to L.A.?  Fine.  But if St. Louis is no longer good enough for you, you don't get to have that Super Bowl XXXIV title in your record books.  That 23-16 victory on January 30, 2000 officially never happened."


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Did people really think Tim Tebow had a ponytail?

This photo from last night's college football championship game spread like wildfire across the internet:

Tim Tebow with a ponytail?  What??  That's crazy!!!

As hard as that is to believe, what's even more amazing is that he also apparently grew an extra pair of small feminine hands out of his chest:

If you're new to LucidSportsFan.com, I highly recommend taking a look at my old series of Tebometer posts...


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Awesome Old Song/Movie Clip of the Week: David Bowie's "Magic Dance" from Labyrinth

I'm back from Jamaica and adjusting to typing with one finger that is now heavier than all the rest.  No more reruns.  But with that in mind, I'm pushing back my regularly scheduled programming because David Bowie died today.

My No. 1 memory of Bowie will always be his role in the 1986 movie Labyrinth.  Along with The NeverEnding Story, it was probably one of my two favorite movies as a kid.  When I got a little older, I also learned to appreciate Labyrinth as the first time I noticed Jennifer Connelly.

(Click on the picture on the right to expand.)



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The movie "Almost Famous" is full of actors who were almost famous (rerun)

From December 23, 2012:

A little while back I was flipping through the HBO channels late at night (which happens a lot I guess), and Almost Famous was on. It's one of those must-view flicks that if you happen to stumble upon you don't turn off. It'd been a few years since I last watched it (the film was made in 2000), so I was a little startled when I saw this...

Continue reading here.


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