Tom Hank's Son Raps?! (Song of the Week)

Yes, you read that correctly, Tom Hanks' son, Chester Marlon Hanks aka "Chet Haze," raps.  Chester currently is a 21 year old student at North Western and also created a freestyle about college life there called "White and Purple."

I know what went through your hed when your first saw this.  "It is hard enough to succeed as a white rapper, but to top it off, this is Forrest Gump's son?!"  But before you make anymore "rash" decisions give it a listen.

Chet shows potential as an aspiring rapper, and shows some impressive flow that cannot be taught.  The paramount line in the song is "my balls served more than Serena playing tennis."  The downfall to the freestyle are his periodic absurd lyrics.  One example is "stab you in the pee-hole".  Overall I'd rate the song 2.5 out of 5 stars.  Hopefully, Chet will learn from his questionable lyrics, and build on his hot ones.

Howard Stern did not like "Chet Haze" as much as I did, but you can listen to his funny commentary on the freestyle below:

While Stern's take on Haze is pretty funny, I disagree with his overall look at the song.  Sure, Haze sounds a little strange when he starts the video off by saying "my homie showed me this beat," but if you can get past that, the freestyle does not sound half-bad.  Stern also rips on Hanks for growing up in Beverly Hills, and says he has nothing to be angry about.  Why does it matter where you come from rich or poor?  All that matters is whether or not for the three minutes of a song that it sounds good or not.  I'm not defending Haze's "wannabe-gangster" lifestyle beyond his music.  My point is that an artist's work should be judged on just that, and not the artist's background.

Chet Haze's mixtape "Get Hazed" will be released on Valentine's Day and can be downloaded here.

2011 NFL Playoff Wrap-Up/What's Ahead

Congrats to Aaron Rodgers on winning the Super Bowl and the MVP award for it despite 15 Packer players on IR

What a playoff season we had in 2011.  Out of all the games played there were only TWO final scores where the teams playing were separated by double digit numbers.  Even with all the down to the wire games I was still knowledgeable (lucky) enough to finish with an 8-3 record of predicting games this postseason.  I enjoyed writing prediction articles for games, and thanks to everyone who followed them.

Baseball season is almost here!

Whats up next for Fantasy Football is Better than Real Life?  The Spring is right around the corner and on that note, so is MLB Spring Training.  I will be following the Cubs weekly starting in March, but I already posted my first article about new Cardinal, Ryan Theriot, on Monday.  Marty will be giving an overview of the MLB in general, and here is a link to his look on the MLB Offseason's winners and losers.  Newcomer, Kevin Ryan will be joining the staff in a couple of weeks to start covering the White Sox as well.  Last Saturday, I started my "Song of the Week" segment with Lil Wayne's "Green and Yellow."  Look for my new song reviews each week (hence the segment title), and whatever news I have an opinion on.

Thanks again for reading, and we hope to keep making the blog even better.

Lewis Flyer's Behind the Athlete

This is my first segment of "Behind the Athlete" for the Lewis Flyer.  It is obviously not that great being my first time conducting a live video interview, so it is a little rough around the edges.  Hopefully, it will only get better with each entry though.  I got lucky enough to interview the 2010 MIVA Freshman volleyball player of the year, Ian Karbenier, who just came off a big performance in the #4 Stanford vs. Lewis match-up.

Big recruiting classes don't always mean National Championship

Every first Wednesday of February recruits all over the nation make their picks on where they are going to play football in the future. Along with the recruits comes the rankings 1-25 in top classes for the year. This year Florida State grabbed the number one spot as the top class signing 29 recruits and 12 of them were in the ESPNU top 150 prospects list. So does this mean that in 2-4 years Florida State is the team to look out for?

The answer: Not necessarily.

Evidence: The National Championship this season between Auburn 22 vs Oregon 19, had stars in the game including Cam Newton, Nick Fairley, Michael Dyer for Auburn, and LaMichael James, and Darron Thomas offensively for the Ducks. These are all solid players, but Auburn, and especially Oregon's recruiting classes went under the radar. From 2006-2010 according to ESPN ranking systems of top classes 1-25 Auburn was in the top 25 in recruiting four out of the five times (not making the top 25 in 2007) and just pulling out the 25th spot in 2009. The Oregon Ducks on the other hand, only hand two top 25's (23rd in '07 and 22nd in '10).

Sum it up:

It is shocking to see that Oregon was four points away from winning the National Championship not even breaking the top 20 in recruiting, and Auburn only breaking the top five once. This proves that when it comes to recruiting, it might not always be quality of players, but the quantity of players at a given position. So in three years will Florida State be the National Championship? Only time can answer that question, but this year Auburn and Oregon proved to us all that teams with lower ranked recruiting classes can be major contenders in College Football.

Ryan Theriot: Cub Nation Enemy #1

ex-Cub Ryan Theriot was beloved by Cubs fans in his six year tenure in Chicago

Last November, in an interview with St. Louis radio station KFNS, Ryan Theriot broke my and Cubs fans every where's heart.  The ex-Cub told KFNS he was "finally on the right side" of the classic Cubs vs. Cards rivalry. I know this is semi-old news, but it still infuriates me.

Being traded to the Dodgers last July obviously was not Ryan's fault.  Even when he decided to sign with the Cardinals from free agency this off-season, I was not that upset.  The MLB is a business, and does not revolve around only emotion.  "The Riot" himself chose to place that dig on his former team, and betray a city that passionately loved him.

How do Cubs players feel about Theriot's comment?  "There's probably a decent chance he's going to feel how hard the dirt is around the home-plate batters' box," catcher Koyie Hill explained. "At least once, maybe once an at-bat. I don't know how long it's going to take. I want to get an apology out of him, and until the whole team, the whole organization kind of feels satisfied …"  Geovany Soto felt similar emotions, "I'm not going to lie.  I was a little pissed."


What he said was flat out disrespectful to the Cubs and their fans.  My opinion about the disrespect would be no different had the situation been flipped either.  If Albert Pujols signed with the Cubs from free-agency (which would also be the best day of my life) I would still lose respect for him, and feel bad for Cardinal fans.


Carlos Zambrano summed up Cubs nation's opinion the best about Theriot, "There is only one thing to say, he's the enemy now."


Source

Green and Yellow, Lil Wayne (Song of the Week)

The Steelers have the "Terrible Towel"; the Packers are getting their own "Packer Towel" for the Super Bowl game.  Wiz Khalifa made a Steelers theme song "Black and Yellow;" Lil Wayne responded with a freestyle of Wiz's beat titled "Green and Yellow."

The freestyle is a pre-game song for the Super Bowl Sunday. If the Packers do not bring home a Lombardi trophy, their season and this song will lose all meaning.  Most lyrics have to do with Green Bay, so if you are not a "cheesehead" the freestyle will have little relating to you.  The paramount line was a prediction by Wayne of what the Packers were going to do the Steelers Sunday afternoon, "We gon' toast these n*ggas, Pop Tarts."  If you are a Packer fan this song is a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars, but for the rest of us it is a mundane 2 out of 5.

Watch Lil Wayne's interview on why he made Green and Yellow, why he is not a Saints fan, and his input on the NBA Western All-Star snubs below:

A Green-Bay-Kinda-Day.

Greg Jennings has 17 receptions for 239 yards in his three 2011 postseason games.

"Hell, no I'm not rooting for the Packers in the Super Bowl," Brian Urlacher told ESPN 1000 last Friday.  While I'm in the same boat as Brian, that has no impact on who I believe will win the big game.


The Packers have played superb on both sides of the ball this postseason and deserve their trip to Dallas.  Whenever you watch Aaron Rodgers in a postseason game, you just know he is going to put on a hell of a performance.  His 71% completion percentage this 2011 postseason has been video game scary.  How do you beat a quarterback that can beat you with the deep ball if your playing up too close, but also take a two step drop and dump it off to one of his stellar wide receivers with ease?  You can't.  If Aaron Rodgers plays as well as he has in January, and the Packers can run the ball around fifteen times to keep the Steelers defense honest, the Packers should have no problem winning the big game.

As fans watching the game at home, the screen never follows what the offensive line is doing, and only shows wherever the pigskin is on the field.  2010 first round draft pick, Maurkice Pouncey's injury will play an integral part each time Roethlisberger takes a snap.  Big Ben was seen out partying earlier this week, and it is clear to me that the specialness of this game has worn off on him after winning it twice prior.  The Steelers might have the Terrible towel and Black and Yellow, but the Packers have too much offensive and defensive talent for them not to come home with the Lombardi trophy.  Steelers 20, Packers 24.

Here are the other two staff member predictions:


When Troy Polamalu is playing, over the last three years, the Steelers are 26-5; without him they are 6-7.  Steelers 24, Packers 21. Marty Joyce


Roethlisberger is relaxed when he takes the snap and the game is not getting to his head.  On the other side, Rodgers will not play dismal, but he also will not live up to his recent phenomenal playoff play.  Steelers 23, Packers 10.  Kevin Ryan