It’s a sad day for me.

Just as Brett Favre finally came to a conclusion, I’ve finally come to a conclusion as well.

I’m retiring Favre Dollar Footlongs.

I’ve been contemplating this decision for awhile and I just think it’s the best move for me.

Late in August of last year I began this web site as a way to express my thoughts about sports and society, hopefully in a different manner then most other writers.

I didn’t want to be the typical team specific web site that just posted updates or concentrated on writing about one specific thing. I wanted to tackle the world; the sports world.

The goals I had before I began were very minimal. I didn’t expect much success and didn’t really care if I got any. All I wanted to do was gain some readers that appreciated someone who could write in a different realm and actually make you think about sports in a totally different manner.

I did that.

So at this point in time I just feel it’s better to quit while I’m ahead. I may not be going out on top, but I’m definitely not going out on the bottom.

From the other bloggers who’ve I’ve met, to the fans that have commented on what I wrote, I’ve enjoyed every bit of the blogging experience over the past year.

So I'm not sure what I'll do in the future.  I seem to be pretty busy doing a lot of other things since I've moved out on my own, so I'm sure I'll be occupied.  I might try to write here and there for other sites, but that's about it.

I might be looking for someone to take over the site so if you are interested then let me know.

That's about all I have to say for now.  On Monday I am going to do my last column so check back then for the last hurrah.

Thanks.

*If you haven’t seen the movie Inception and plan on seeing it then don’t read this!! 

**If you have seen the movie and enjoyed it then you probably won’t like what I have to say about it, but maybe you’ll at least enjoy the parallels to LeBron James

It’s not very often that a movie comes on the scene and the concept behind it blows peoples’ minds the way Inception has.

Colleagues, friends, family; it seems like everyone who sees this movie has been sucked in to the dream and wants to tell everyone else they know to go see it.

Don’t go see it.

I know if you’re reading this you’ve probably already have, but when you step back and look at the whole story you’ll realize that it was just a bunch of bullshit the entire movie.

The same way I feel about Inception I feel about the Miami Heat. 

Inception and the Heat look great initially.  They both have a concept that we’ve never thought of before, both have star power, both can pull off some special effects, but at the end of the day, it’s really just an ill-conceived plot.

Just like the Inception bandwagon that millions of people have boarded, the Heat will have millions of people watching in awe and people will be talking about it constantly.

The people with insight who can really delve into either’s true downsides will realize that neither is anything special.

Of course I don’t know exactly how the Miami Heat will perform throughout the season, but I have seen Inception and have my reasons for my dislike.

I get it.  Cool, unique concept, special effects that twist and turn. What’s not to love?

How about the ridiculous plot that we were subjected to for two and a half hours?

Before I even get into the main plot of the death/murder of Leo’s wife and the purpose of this expedition I’ll focus on the team of dreamers first.

Do people actually believe that it’s conceivable that random dream machines and dream jumpers are just situated around the world?

Oh really Leo?  You need some help with a mission so you jump around the rest of the world as a fugitive to grab your team of dream staff while not a single government official has any clue that these dream devices exist?

I forgot also that the potion man just has a baker’s dozen of old Indians strapped to dream machines to test his concoctions on.  That seems believable as well.

Go a step further and once they go into the first dream after hooking up the rich bitch to the dream machine they cruise around the city in a cargo van. 

I guess if I was able to dream my own world I would definitely go with the cargo van instead of a bulletproof beast of an automobile with every imaginable weapon available.

So go ahead and call the creators of these mind-bending movie geniuses, I think they’re dumb for screwing up the simple things.

The whole purpose of the storyline is for Leo to be freed from persecution over the wrongful claim of murder of his wife.  The rest of the team joins him in the inception attempt I guess for monetary reasons, they really didn’t lay out the whole reasoning for them joining that well.

It almost seems like the Miami Heat are the same way with LeBron playing the Leo role.  He gets his team together to help free him from the persecution of failure to capture an NBA Championship.  The others are in it for the championship, glory, and money as well, but LeBron is in it for himself ultimately.

He gathers the help of his friends to try and get him to his ultimate goal so the nightmarish memories that run through his mind everyday can finally be alleviated.

Leo’s wife is the city of Cleveland.  Leo’s kids are an NBA championship.

As the movie went on we realized that Leo and his wife were caught in a dream, they thought they would live together happily and finally they would return to reality to see their kids again.

LeBron and Cleveland are the exact same way.

Both the city and LeBron were living in this dream that everything would go perfect and they would be together forever and live the perfect life, but things started to go awry. 

LeBron supplanted the thought into the city that a championship would come to them, but after he realized the dream was over, the city still believed they were still in it, and when reality hit, Cleveland jumped off the building and the blame fell on LeBron.

Now just like Leo, LeBron is on the run, with guilt in the back of his mind, and the only way to free him self from the guilt is to do whatever he can do obtain his ultimate goal, an NBA Championship.

Leo wants to see his kids.  LeBron wants the ring.

The real problem with this whole storyline in Inception is that it’s ridiculous to think that Leo’s wife would jump off the building and he immediately thinks that he would be convicted of murder so his only way out is to flee the country.

I don’t know, but if the love of my life killed herself and I knew it wasn’t my fault, even if she wrote a note saying it was me, then I’d still be down on the street, holding her body, and mourning uncontrollably.

Plus, the suicide happened at night and he just randomly is able to show up at his house the next day to meet his lawyer so he can get a plane ticket from him so he can leave the country?

You don’t think cops would be there?

The movie is a unique idea, but it just fails on so many levels.  I think the Miami Heat may end up the same way.

LeBron is just being Leo; getting all his friends together and doing anything possible for him to reach his ultimate goal.

The whole purpose of each of their expeditions is solely for their own good.

We saw how Leo ended up; back home and with his kids, getting exactly what he pursued.

I guess both of them have to shoot someone in the back at the end of the movie to get what they really want.

The question still remained at the end if Leo was finally actually reached his goal or if he was still dreaming.  I think the same question remains for the LeBron.

Inception seemed great from the outside looking in, but when you see the whole story then there are a lot of unanswered questions that seem so glaringly apparent.

The Miami Heat seem to have the same approach.

LeBron will be like Leo and eventually obtain his goal of a championship, but will he have to go through the same process to get there?

Will the guilt be worth it though after realizing he was the one who supplanted the thoughts into the Cleveland Cavs fans that a championship would come their way?

How will he be able to perform with the progressions in his mind of the Cleveland fans who loved him every time he steps on the court?

Will he try to just remember the great memories and never go down to his basement of thoughts when the Cleveland fans jumped off the building?

Leo may have finally been freed and got back to his kids, but I bet he wishes his wife was still around to cherish the kids the rest of her life as well.

Will LeBron have the same thought once he gets an NBA Championship?

We’ll have to wait to see how the LeBron movie ends up.

I hope for his sake that his totem keeps spinning so we don’t find out he was just living a dream and wasn’t in one.

It must be the LeBron effect because every single sports fan I know is up in arms over Chris Paul’s comments about wanting to take his talents to Disney World, the Big Apple, or any place else that can offer him a shot at an immediate title.

The negative reactions being flung towards Paul by fans are in one way humorous and one way hypocritical in my mind.

I think it’s funny the way fans are dealing with every contract negotiation or player demand now that LeBron’s decision was a debacle.  It’s as if he set a precedent now that no player is ever allowed to want to leave their team.

Is Chris Paul demanding a trade worse than what LeBron did?  Not even close!

Come on everyone.  Let’s be serious here. 

Return some rational to the sports world and start looking at the whole picture instead of just listening to sports radio and regurgitating the overreaction to a scenario that we’ve seen a hundred times before.

What LeBron did is make his hometown (I know Cleveland isn’t Akron) fans believe that there was a legitimate chance he was going to stay.  He made other cities fans have hope as well when there was no hope for them.  He turned a charity event for kids into a one hour ego fest and he put himself above the game of basketball.

All Chris Paul did was actually be truthful to his situation and come out and say what he wants, even if his demands seem heinous to some.

There is so much hypocrisy to this situation that I can’t believe people are condemning him for his actions.

First of all, take a look at the owners.  Do we get all upset when an owner doesn’t honor their contract that they gave the player?

They can release players, trade players, bench players, and basically do whatever they want to the player. 

If a player gets released from his contract then fans aren’t getting upset at owners.

If a player is traded away to a team that he has no say over then we don’t point our finger at the owner and yell about how the player had a contract to play in that city for X amount of years.

No, we don’t care when the owners do it, we only care when the star players do it.

I can understand New Orleans Hornets fans being upset, but for everyone else we shouldn’t care one bit.

How about when a college football or basketball coach from a mid-major gets the opportunity to seize a position in a power conference? 

Are we chastising the coach for making a move to a better team, a better program, and a much better situation for him and his family even if he had two years remaining on his contract to coach the mid-major program?

I just can’t understand the hate when the situation happens so often in every different sport.

For once a player wants traded not because of money or contract demands, but because he wants to win and now he’s the worst guy in the NBA.

I’m sorry, but I’m not going to blast a player that sees more opportunity and more chance of winning in a different city, just because he was actually man enough to come out and say it.

The debate can wage on about if the Hornets are taking steps to improve, but I know if I’m at my job and I signed a contract and had two years remaining and I felt the employer wasn’t living up to expectations then I would try to take my talents to the best possible scenario.

I can’t blame Chris Paul for wanting to do the same.

Chris Paul is no LeBron James.  He may have the same agent whispering in his ear now and the same desire to play on a championship caliber team with a friend or two of his, but other than that the scenario is not even close.

As we saw at yesterday’s meeting the power still lies in the owner’s hands no matter how many demands a player tries to make.

I just hope next year, when Chris Paul gets traded at the trade deadline for a player and a couple draft picks that I see the same outcry against Hornets owners, George Shinn and Gary Chouest, for not living up to their end of the bargaining and having Chris Paul be a Hornet for his remaining two years.

The news of Kaye Cowher’s death caught me off guard yesterday.

I woke up just thinking I was checking the score updates from the night before and what I saw was that the wife of Bill Cowher had lost her battle with cancer at the age of 54.

My mood changed about six times in the next six minutes.

At first it was the feeling of disbelief.

Not because she had died, but because I never even knew she had cancer.  Then again, this was a woman who as a Steelers fan growing up I never really saw.  It was only during the Super Bowl Championship that we really got to see her and Bill together.

The next feeling was sympathy.

I think many of us have dealt with someone who has battled with cancer or seen a loved one who has passed away from a disease and just recognizing and relating to the situation that the family and loved ones are in brings out a heartfelt feeling.

I then had a sense of tranquility pass over me.

Every situation like this is hard for everyone, but I’m always a person who likes to look at the positives when it seems like there are none there.  Even not knowing Kaye Cowher for more than being Coach Cowher’s wife, I still know that her passing means that she is no longer suffering.  Her tranquility from no longer having to fight gave me the same feeling in understanding that good can come out of saddening situations.

Cherish came next as I started to read about how such high regard Bill praised Kaye.

From the statements he made upon the unfortunate news to the past statements he made that involved his wife; all were of the utmost praise and the love that he had for her and the importance she had amongst the Cowher family was easily viewable just from the few words that I read.  It definitely made me think and appreciate all the family and friends I have around me.

Repentance was where I was at next.

In one way the feeling was directed towards Bill.  Upon his retirement in 2006 there were so many questions and negative reactions to his decision.  Fans were bewildered how he could walk away from what we consider the greatest organization in all of sports after only one season out from winning a Super Bowl Championship.

We understood he wanted to spend time with his family, but all we heard was that he wanted to watch his daughters play basketball; there was nothing about his wife at the time.

Steelers’ fans respected him, but a lot of the love was lost.  Derogatory statements about him were thrown around and everything he had done for the organization was summed up by most people saying that he only won one Super Bowl and he wasn’t that great anyways.  I guess many fans just tried to justify the departure.

Things got even worse when he rang the bell at the Pittsburgh Penguins/Carolina Hurricanes game in 2009.  Cries of treason rang out amongst Steeler Nation just for clanging a bell before the playoff hockey game.  The backstab feeling would’ve been considered on equal footing as the LeBron James “Decision” was for Cleveland fans.

Once all those thoughts crossed my mind I finally felt remorse for Kaye Cowher. 

Not for her death, not for her battle with cancer, but for the fact that she had to hear all these negative remarks directed towards her husband.  Here it is a woman who is already dealing with the worst situation in her life and then she has to feel some sort of guilt for the treatment that her husband receives from fans because we don’t know the full story.

I can’t imagine how this weighed on her.  Still Bill never said anything, he stuck by her side and he took everything that came his way.

The problem with the world today is that we get information so quick, that we are so prone to react.  There’s no finding out the true story because we expect everything to be included in the initial report.  We don’t take the time to stop and look at the whole picture because if we do then we might just miss the next story that passes by us.

Steelers’ fans didn’t see the skin cancer; they only saw the story that was skin deep.  

They saw a coach who was still in his prime with one of the NFL’s greatest franchises in one of America’s greatest football cities and he left; too early for our liking.

So now after the saddening news we can try and defend our actions by saying we didn’t know.  The real sad part is that we never tried to know.

If you didn't notice I haven't really written much in the past two or three weeks.  It wasn't that I didn't have the time it was more the fact that I didn't want to write: about LeBron James.

Let’s face it.  Since July 1st until probably the beginning of this week almost everyone has written about LeBron.

I didn't want to.

It's not that I didn't have lots to say about it, but I just thought you probably already read every possible angle in the LBJ Saga.

Now that some weeks have gone by the only question I really am still pondering is if LeBron can restore his image to what it once was?

Kobe did it.  Tiger is semi on his way.  What is it about these particular athletes who were overwhelmingly vilified that made us found a renewed sense of trust in them?

I figured it out.  They love the game they play.

Unfortunately we as fans won't ever get the opportunity to lace up or shoes and step foot into Madison Square Garden to participate in an NBA game.  We can't dig our cleats in to the sacred dirt at Fenway or Wrigley.  There won't be thousands of people watching us if we ever get a chance to play eighteen at St. Andrews.

It's these simple things that we see every day that we love and cherish.  We just want the athletes who get to experience these things to cherish them as well.

The fact that LeBron went on national television for his lame special is one thing, but are we really that upset that he was on TV for his decision?  College athletes do the exact same thing every year and if you want to talk about being heinous, I can still picture the nightmarish scene where Kevin Jones picks up the Penn State uniform, holds it there, tosses it aside and takes off his sweatshirt to reveal a Virginia Tech jersey.

As a Penn State fan and alum I will not only hate Kevin Jones forever, but I will hate Virginia Tech too.

What LeBron did was a charade.  It was just his new way to once again have the spotlight on him, but when the spotlight shines to bright it's a detriment to everyone’s' eyes.

Everyone isn't mad at LeBron because of The Decision; they're mad because he made himself bigger than the game and nobody is ever bigger than the game.

That phrase is cliché, but it's oh so true.  As fans we can try to pretend like we understand the business, understand what the players are thinking, and try to put ourselves in their shoes, but we can't; we'll never be able to.  All we can truly understand is the game we enjoy watching and appreciate it for what it is.  That's why in the end we respect the athletes who also appreciate the game in same respect that we do.

People like to say that winning cures everything, but I disagree with that as well.  It's how you win that change peoples' minds.

When Kobe returned to glory after his court case he was focused on winning.  He had one goal in mind and he got there.  We respect him for that.

On the other hand compare players like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.  No matter if you hate the Yankees, most fans still respect Jeter, but A-Rod could win ten rings and most people still wouldn't like him.  A-Rod is trying to change his image so we'll see if it works out.

I guess sometimes lowering your ego makes you bigger in the fans' minds.

So sorry LeBron, but you're no longer the young favorite of the NBA.  That torch is getting passed on to Kevin Durant.

Durant issued his extension press release on Twitter.  He didn't need an hour show to do so.  He was praised for it, but the greatest thing about it was that praise was the last thing he was trying to get.  Everyone can tell that Durant is a player that truly respects the game and loves the game and because he shares the same feeling as so many NBA fans, his appreciation resonates to so many fans and he will become a huge star because of it.

My hiatus was a great thing.  Instead of venting and throwing my thoughts into words I was able to just sit back, read, and reflect.  I learned that all sports fan, no matter how many debates or arguments we have about everything that happens in sports still have one thing in common.

We love the game and we'll love the players that feel the same way.