2009 Will Be The Year Of The Pittsburgh Steelers At The Professional Football Hall Of Fame

Word Cloud Courtesy of Wordles

Professional Football Hall of Fame classes in recent years have been dominated by the Washington Redskins, Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. 2009 looks like it will be the year of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

20 years after the Steelers won the fourth of their five Super Bowls I'm picking three members of the black and gold for induction, two who were standouts on the team of the decade in the 1970s. Look for L.C. Greenwood, Donnie Shell and Ron Woodson to be in Canton next summer.

Last week, 133 preliminary nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2009 were announced. The group joins two Senior Committee picks made earlier in the year.

The first cut comes next month when the initial list is pared to 25 semifinalists. The number of finalists considered for enshrinement will 17, including the two Senior Committee selections.

My picks for the 25-man semifinalist class include... L.C. Greenwood, Donnie Shell, Rod Woodson, Shannon Sharpe, Cornelius Bennett, Richard Dent, Jim Covert, Russ Grimm, Ray Guy, Bob Kuchenberg, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Chris Carter, Derrick Thomas, Irving Fryar, Russ Francis, Dermontti Dawson, Nick Lowery, Phil Simms, Hershel Walker, Ken Anderson, Dwight Clark, Paul Tagliabue, Ed DeBartolo Jr. and Gil Brandt.

There's no rhyme nor reason to the order of ths list, other than the three Steerlers starting it off who I'm picking for induction. I worked through the list of preliminary nominees the past few days and have notes on all sorts of rolling paper packs, bar napkins, business cards and envelopes.

It's a 44-person Board of Selectors that decides who gets their ticket punched. The majority of delegates are beat writers; there's one from each city that has a team in the league, except for New York that has two. The Pro Football Writers of America is represented by one selector and there are 11 at-large members of the board.

The class of 2009 will be chosen at a meeting of the Board of Selectors in Tampa on January 31st, the day before Super Bowl XLIII. Under current guidelines the class will range in size from four and seven members.

In order to be selected a nominee must receive at least 80 percent approval of the Board at the annual meeting.

My picks for the class of 2009, based on the list of preliminary nominees are... L.G. Greenwood, Donnie Shell, Rod Woodson, Shannon Sharpe, Cornelius Bennett, Richard Dent and Claude Humphrey.

Humphrey was one of the two Senior Committe picks, Bob Hayes was the other.

I Am Voting For Barack Obama To Make America PURPLE

Word Cloud courtesy of Wordles

It was July 4, 2006 when I first called on the American electorate to Make America PURPLE.

The tide of change began rising that November when Democrats became the majority party in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

In February of 2007 Barack Obama went to the old state house in Springfield, Illinois to announce he was running for President of the United States.

Now, I am asking you to go to the polls on Tuesday and join me in voting for Barack Obama.

Why am I casting my vote to make Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States?

Barack Obama is best equipped to bring much needed change to America and to resolve a myriad of problems brought by George W. Bush with the support of John McCain.

Barack Obama is the one most capable of bringing the generational change necessary to move beyond the past represented by John McCain and offer hope for a bright future.

Change and hope have been the consistent theme of the Obama campaign.

Barack Obama has shared a vision of what America can be, offered a comprehensive plan to deliver a higher quality of life and demonstrated that he possesses the leadership ability necessary to get the job done.

Choosing Joe Biden to join him on the ticket reflects Obama's good judgment. He has attracted support from the best and brightest people in America ranging from Warren Buffet to Colin Powell.

Reaching across the aisle is something both Obama and Biden have demonstrated the ability to do successfully. That will be more necessary than ever to resolve problems both at home and abroad.

The Obama/Biden team is best suited to foster a relationship of trust with our allies and return America to a position of being both respected and admired around the globe.

America will be more secure with Obama at the helm.

The misguided and poorly managed occupation of Iraq will end. The true War on Terror in Afghanistan, which has been largely ignored to focus on George W. Bush's war in Iraq, will get much needed attention and we will be victorious where it counts most.

Talk of Barack Obama raising taxes is, in fact, the righting of a wrong done by George W. Bush. Again, with the support of John McCain. The wealthiest one percent of Americans were given huge tax breaks by Bush while the middle class took a good screwing.

Giving the middle class more opportunity, making it possible once again to achieve the America dream will be a top priority for the Obama Administration.

It is Barack Obama who has the best plan and is most capable of revitalizing the economy and fostering prosperity in America.

When the American economy was threatened by the near collapse of the banking industry, and in turn Wall Street, it was Barack Obama who exhibited leadership while John McCain was both unsteady and erratic.

The emphasis of John McCain's campaign has been to focus on attacking Barack Obama. His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate reflected both bad judgment and that he, as George W. Bush did, would pander to the Republican base in order to get elected.

Conservatism, religious fanaticism and partisanship are not what is needed in the White House at a time when the United States of America is at one of the most critical points in it's history.

Vote on Tuesday for Barack Obama. He is right person at the right time, just as John F. Kennedy was almost 50 years ago. The future is in your hands and it's important you do the right thing.

The Life We Live Comes From The Choices We Make

How did I forget music? Stoned.
Word Cloud by Wordle

"The blogosphere is my sandbox where I go to play."
---Kilroy_60

I learned early in life to work hard and take pride in doing a good job. Also that working is easier when I'm not deprived of time to play.

Another lesson I learned was that with freedom comes responsibility and that breaking the rules has a price. Of course if you're willing to pay there's no reason not to stray.

It became apparent early on that conformity would never be my strong point and that should not be something about which I feel concern.

There was emphasis put on the fact that relationships are something to be held in high regard and not be be taken for granted.

I'm not especially interested in most of the websites that fall in the category of social media. I'm quite comfortable and enjoy spending time in the blogosphere.

The one social media site that captured my attention and held my interest at this point is StumbleUpon, most likely because of it's similarity to blogging. Beyond that, most of what I have to deal with is related to work I do with clients and I have some associates I lean on for that.

Every now and then someone asks what attracts me to blogging or what I find enjoyable about it. On both counts the best answer would be, making a human connection.

I was thoughtful in crafting the header and the about me section in the sidebar of this blog. There should be no doubt what I'm all about, what I think or how I feel.

There was a time when nobody was reading Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers. I've had more readers at times and less readers at other times. Having readers, I can say without qualification, makes blogging more fun.

As for being popular or looked at as prominent, neither are important to me and I couldn't care any less. What is important, the only things that are important, are to have fun and to feel my time has been well spent.

I've had the good fortune to connect with people who are like minded and with people who are very different, yet open-minded enough that we're able to get along. That combination unquestionably make blogging both more interesting and more fun.

I welcome your comments on any post, whether you agree or not with whatever position I've taken. You may or may not enjoy what I've presented, there's no accounting for taste.

Comments are moderated, because I'm not attracted to processed, canned meat and I am not running ads that invite people to visit other websites. Not unless they're sites I choose to recommend.

The first three years have been anything but boring, that's the one thing I don't expect to change. Ciao.

Kilroy Goes GONZO! Again... Year 4, Post 1

Word Cloud Courtesy of Wordles.