Walk wit a Real One: My Thoughts about the Saints

Okay, before i start, I would like to say that the reason I am doing this post about my beloved hometown New Orleans Saints is because my big brother explained to me that he was too distraught.  So I will gladly take the baton from him and run with this one.


Now, for all that don't know, I cheer on almost all teams associated with my city and state and that includes the New Orleans Hornets and the LSU Tigers. The Hornets are young and inexperienced and have a softie for a superstar (Eric Gordon) but Anthony Davis looks really good for the future so I'm not really flipping my wig when I watch them.  I really like my LSU Tigers every year because we always have a good to really good defense with very talented players but my only displeasure I have with them is the bad quarterback play I've had to witness the last couple of years (i,e. Jordan Jefferson) and of course the maestro behind all the madness, LES MILES!!! O yes the mad hatter makes my blood boil on a weekly basis because he has bad timeout management and for some odd reason, his team is never fully prepared.  But enough about that, let's get down to what we are really here to talk about and that's those Saints.

Now, there's this man I go to school with that I see on occasion and he always has on Saints apparel, whether  it be a hat, a jersey, or his big Saints cup with the black and gold straw in it.  Well, I seen him one day and noticed him and I said "Who Dat" towards him and he responded back with a resounding "Who Dat." For anybody who wants to find a real Saints fan, shout "Who Dat' toward them and check out the reaction you get.  It will be a look of pride that they are proud to be Saints fans. When the Saints started the season 0-4, me and this gentleman would see each other on occasion around campus and the "Who Dat' was very weak between us, but as soon as the Saints got to rolling and won a couple of games, the "Who Dat' tone changed as it was alive and full of that pride again. Well Monday on the way to the library, I seen the gentleman again donning his New Orleans Saints snap back and the "Who Dat' had once again turned weak.

Now let's analyze the problem with the loss Sunday to the 49ers 31-21.  First of all, I am requesting the NFL to review those referees eyes for that game because they missed a good three or four pass interference calls.  Secondly, the offensive line was completely overwhelmed by the 49ers D-Line, which accounted for 7 sacks against Drew Brees.  And finally, STOP WITH THE MARK INGRAM EXPERIMENT!!  Chris Ivory or "The Dreaded Bulldozer" as I like to secretly call him, came from out of nowhere off the bench and has helped us win these last couple of games by giving us a steady running attack averaging at least 4 yards a carry which is all you need for an offense that throws 90 percent of the time anyway.  Mark Ingram had 10 carries for 27 yards which is about 2.7 yards a carry.  Not good. Chris Ivory finished with two fewer carries than Ingram but seven more rushing yards with a 4.2 yard per carry and against a stout 49ers defense, I'll take that.  Ingram has been very lackluster since the Saints drafted him and I'm just not totally sure about his ability in our type of offense.  I'm sure he could be good if he played with Pittsburgh or the Ravens who live to run the ball with big O-lineman to block for him but in this offense as a running back, you got to know how to break some tackles and get tough yards because the Saints O-Line is not really equipped to run block really well.  With all that said, it was just a tough game to watch because once again and against the same team, our mistakes cost us the game.  Once Brees threw that first pick six, it was the beginning of the end because it totally destroyed the momentum we had.

As I sign out with this, I will say that I would like to wish my Saints a good luck because Thursday on NFL Network, we face off with those Falcons again.  We got them the first time in the Superdome so I hold hope that we can just do what worked that game and repeat it in their building.  It would really look good on the resume for this team and this season to beat the top team in the NFL,record-wise anyway, and in our division two times as it has been a tough season to deal with without Sean Payton and might I add some really bad defense.  This has been "Walk wit a Real One" and I hope you all enjoy the game.  "WHO DAT!"

A Grumpy Young Man

My brother made his first blog post yesterday introducing himself to everybody. I called him up to read over it and was just blown away by the fact he would name his post thread after a Rick Ross song. After shaking my head for awhile and thinking about it I realized that he’s only 21 years old. When I was 21 I would have probably named my blogs something cool. It may have been a Ice Cube or Tupac song but it would have been fitting of my agenda at that age. I’m not mad at him even though I think Rick Ross is terrible.

I was glad I didn’t fuss with him behind that. I’ve been fussing about a lot lately. There’s something happening to me that I can’t seem to stop. I’m becoming a grumpy old man and I’m not even old yet. I just find myself being aggravated and disgusted with the most unimportant things and the most unimportant people. I’ve been fussing about everything. It’s like my grandfather is speaking through me from the grave.

Some of the things I complain about make no sense whatsoever. I was in Texas last week for Thanksgiving. One thing about that place is that everyone who settled there after Katrina seems to live an hour apart even though they are in the same metropolitan area. Just to go from one house to another required a 30 minute drive and even a toll or two to pay depending on where their house was. It hit me on the way from Pearland to Katy that I am doing all this driving out of town but during a regular day in the city I will cuss someone out for asking to drive to Algiers on the other side of the river even though it’s about a 15 minute drive from my house.

I don’t like traffic, driving, buildings with the air conditioning not high enough, and dudes that wear their pants hanging down so I can see their underwear. I don‘t like talking on the phone, standing in line for anything more than 5 minutes, and parents who let their kids leave the house looking dirty. I can’t stand crowds, shopping, people using the N word on social networking, and people who take pictures of themselves in bathroom mirrors. I wish it would all just go away.

There are so many things happening with people in my community and I know too many things that I don’t want to know. Never mind the everyday struggles of people I know personally, I look at statistics on homeless people all day long. When you add all the budget cuts and bad news it’s enough to turn my young energy to old and weary stress.  When you have big issues on your back all it takes is someone not using their turn signal in front of you to make you want to drive home and never come back outside. I have too many things to accomplish to do that. I guess that’s why man created alcoholic beverages

Walk With A Real One: Jerald's Introduction

Hello to all...

My name is Jerald and this is my personal segment I would like to call “Walk with a Real One.”  The inspiration of the name comes from the big boss Rick Ross, one of my favorite rappers/businessmen in the rap industry today.  I was listening to a song of his and that’s how he began the song by saying, “Walk With a Real One” and I thought it was so fitting to name this column that because I consider myself a real person who keeps it real all the time, doesn't fake out for anyone, and who will always be the same no matter what.  So take a walk with me as every week I will get down to the real and present it to the many readers out there.  Also, shout out to Rick Ross for his brilliance!!

Now just to get to know me better, I am a student at the University of Memphis majoring in Journalism and my career goal is to write my own publications.  I work part-time as a manager at a sub shop and here’s a fun fact for you: The fellow that created Cliff’s Crib just happens to be my oldest brother and I’m very thankful he’s letting me express my talents to the world on his blog. Generally, I’m a pretty laid back type of guy and in my spare time, I like to write music and chill with good friends.

I would just like to say thanks again to my big brother for giving me the opportunity to jump on his blog.  I hope everyone enjoys my posts and I will be back soon with the kick off of “Walk with a Real One.”  Enjoy!!

Sitting On My Porch Part Eighty Five

Today was the first day of my agency mandated use of vacation time. I have so much vacation time that I had to submit a plan on how I would use as much of it as possible in the next few weeks.  That means there will be lots of boredom, spending too much on lunch because I can eat anywhere without worrying about time, and wishing some of my friends were part of the 47% sitting at home collecting their gifts from Obama so I could go by their cribs to hangout during the day.

I thought Mitt Romney had questionable character when he ran against Jon McCain in 2008. I was sure of it in 2012 when he ran against Obama. He just made me realize I was correct with his theory that President Obama won because he gave minorities and young people gifts. We are in a sad era of the country’s history right now. I work for an agency that uses funding to help people. I’m around case managers and some of the kindest people in the community all day long. They could all tell you that since President Obama’s been in office there’s actually less money to help people.

There are two reasons for that. The first reason is that in his quest to show the people that hate him he could work with them the president put a lot of cuts on the table in one sided deals that included no revenue increases.  The second reason is that red states are really red right now and Republicans are slicing funding for programs left and right. There are a lot of Americans that may not realize these things and that’s unfortunate. I expect a presidential candidate to be informed enough not to make foolish statements. He’s either too incompetent or too stupid to be president so the right man won.

Anytime a candidate uses race, gender, religion, or any other characteristic to divide the public its because they are trying to hide their true agenda and get enough people to vote against their own interest. They are either incompetent or hiding something. Either way everyone loses so people need to reject that kind of rhetoric and pay attention to what’s really going on.

On a positive note, Allen West lost so there’s still hope for everyone.

The General Patraeus sex scandal proves once again that no matter what a man’s status is in life there’s always a chance his little head will take over his thinking.

The Saints are going to finish 8-8 because the whole they dug early was just too deep to get out of. The sad part about that is the record will keep the media from highlighting the greatest  season of leadership in NFL history by Drew Brees.

I still don’t like Donald Trump.

I was at a conference downtown this week. It sucks being the host city because you have to hear people talk about what they see in your surroundings. There was a nice lady from Virginia talking about the homeless young people she saw on the street. I engaged her conversation but the whole time I was thinking to myself that she and the other guests weren’t important enough for us to clean up for. Wait until the Superbowl is closer. 

My brother is a hard working young man. He’s a student, a manager at his job, and a rapper. He’s also going to be a writer and is studying journalism at Memphis University. He asked me if he could make a few posts on here for practice. That wasn’t a hard decision. He could take the whole thing over if it was going to help him. When you have many things going on the hobby suffers. This blog is my hobby and it has taken a back seat to other things. Since my little brother thought enough of it to ask to use it as a way to work on his craft I am going to pick up the pace.

Post Election Thoughts

There was six billion dollars spent on Tuesday’s election and the country ended up with the same set up we had before. We could have given that money to veterans and their families.

The last four years have been fascinating from a politics and policy standpoint. The people are the angriest about Obama winning live in states that are solidly red and there’s anything but progressive policy going on. The thing about it is that those states were going to end up for the Republican candidate as long as he was going against Obama. I live in one of those states and I knew Romney or whoever the Republican candidate was winning this state the day after the last election. There was no way reason to play the angry white card as hard as they did.

In order to play the angry card you have to let the crazies into the discussion. That’s why we ended up with people like Glen Beck driving political agenda.  It’s hard to filter out a certain kind of hate and contain the rest so once you open the door to that kind of rhetoric it gets out of control.  The biggest thing that burned Mitt Romney is that his party managed to turn off almost every minority leading up to the election. I think there were a lot of voters who were literally scared of what could happen if Mitt Romney won the election and that’s why voter turnout was so high.

How much does the news media have to do with Republicans being shocked at losing? Outside of MSNBC no news channel covered the other side of the debate. All we knew that there was a group of angry people against everything. The entire Republican primary was about negativity. After the first debate, despite producing any new ideas or a clear agenda, Governor Romney started acting like the front runner and went into victory formation for the rest of the campaign. He didn’t even have a consolation speech.  The only way that’s possible is if he and his base were only listening to one another the entire time. That makes me feel good about my vote for Obama because if they were tuning out everyone else during an election they desperately wanted they were going to do the same thing in the White House. I already have a governor doing that.

It’s funny how powerful people can control things behind the scenes for so long then suddenly smell blood in the water and make their agenda public. It’s like the people who came out after Katrina with their green space idea for New Orleans and got Mayor Nagin re-elected by mistake. The breakout stars of the last few years are the Koch Brothers. These guys were probably pulling strings behind the scenes for years. Now they’ve replaced Dick Cheney as the face of the evil empire.

I can’t tell you that I have agreed with everything President Obama did his first term in office. I was frustrated with him a lot. I don’t think we’ve made any progress to close the poverty and education cap. Black unemployment is over 14% right now. In my personal opinion the jury is still out on his ability to bring about the kind of change so many of his die hard supporters need. Despite my frustration, I have to say that he will go down as one of the greatest campaigners and candidates ever. The president and his team know how to win elections and their ground game to get out the vote is second to none. He’s the Joe Montana of campaigning.

This was a very stressful election for the country. There’s been a lot of harsh things said and unnecessary finger pointing. There are so many people with the same problems blaming one another for it instead of looking at what really works and what doesn’t.  Making people hate one another for political gain is a terrible thing. I try to keep from wasting energy on that. However, there are few people who were so dedicated to being stupid that not liking them is effortless. Here’s my top ten.

1.    Donald Trump
2.    Donald Trump
3.    Allen West
4.    Donald Trump
5.    Newt Gingrich
6.    Super Pacs
7.    Any official involved in voter suppression
8.    Donald Trump
9.    Koch brother #1
10.    Koch brother #2

It’s a beautiful day outside but it’s too hot for October. I guess New Orleans will get some cooler fall weather any day now. It feels like August out there right now. It’s a good thing it is football season and I don’t plan on being outside that much anyway. I am watching Florida vs. LSU game right now.  After this I may drive over the Gentilly Fest and check out Whodini. If I get there early enough to talk to their manager I might be able to get up on stage and help them perform Funky Beat or maybe One Love. 

Last week I had the experience of serving on a jury trial at New Orleans Criminal Court. Real court is nothing like television. The most interesting part was meeting the other jurors. Trials have a lot of breaks and you can’t discuss the case when you are in the break room so you have to talk about other things.  There were twelve people in the room from a relatively small city and they were all very different. The only thing they truly had in common was everyone was ready to go home. It seems like lately the city and its people are being presented in a monolithic way. I know the fun and revelry sells the city to outsiders but sometimes it’s good just to sit around with a sanitation worker and a grandmother and talk about what’s going on.  

I’ve been very pessimistic about most things lately. I have been keeping a lot of it to myself because I never wanted to be the guy that’s always bitching and moaning about everything. With that being said, I checked out the NOLA For Life program and I support it. There’s no such thing as a program so good it will eliminate murders in this city. I believe that’s something that needs to be done in the homes of those kids. I do think a good program with the mayor’s involvement can change the environment where some of the people involved may not be so quick to shoot someone.  We still need to put the time and resources into the ideas to make them work but I’m optimistic. I hope I stay that way. 

If the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texas play in the Superdome while the New Orleans Saints have a losing season because their leadership was in trouble for doing something against the rules that will sum up the last 30 years of living here. We’ll call it the Cities Left Us Behind Bowl. 

The Saints have had some really bad seasons and some crazy ones as well.  My top three crazy seasons are the Earl Campbell season, the season where someone slept with Willie Roaf’s wife, and the last Ditka season where the offense had about 5 plays in the playbook. None of those seasons have prepared me for the bounty season where the coach is suspended. The Saints are 0-4 and have lost all four games in a different way. I’m frustrated, aggravated, and I don’t care for the commissioner. I am still not sure what Sean Payton did to be suspended and treated like a criminal. It really doesn’t matter because if the Saints lose tomorrow the season is over and that dream of playing host to the Superbowl and being in it is dead. 

There’s only one thing left to do. I’m breaking out the lucky Superbowl shirt. I was going to burn it after the Seattle playoff game but I changed my mind. I’m wearing the 2006 NFC South divisional hat and the Crown Royal and putting all my energy into beating the Chargers. I’ll be at home so at least I won’t get arrested. This is the last stand of the 2012 season. Let’s go Saints!