Underwood Update for 23 June 2007

I knew I forgot to say something last week. To all of the Cavs fans that are out that and for anyone that is from Cleveland or lives there, I have three words for you. Ha, ha, and ha. The Cleveland Cavaliers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs. I am not a Spurs fan, however I hate everything about Cleveland and to be quite honest, the Spurs were a better team all the way around. I thought that LeBron James was going to win one for the Cavs but I was wrong. Beware Cleveland, this is as close as any of your teams will get to winning a championship for as long as I live and I pray to God that I live a very, very long time.

This leads me to another subject. Early Monday morning, Adam “Pacman” Jones was involved in another fight at a strip club. Afterwards, one of his friends started shooting at the opposing party who shot back. Pacman was not at the shooting, but he is wanted for questioning. The day before, Quincy Jones, running back for the Cincinnati Bengals, was arrested for disorderly conduct, making him the 10^th different Bengal that has been arrested in the past 14 months. This on top of the whole Paris Hilton fiasco leads me to one question: Where are the good role models at? All we hear about are celebrities that continuously break the law. Where are the good celebrity role models at?

The good role models are not in the news. They do what they are supposed to do but are not recognized for it. For example, look at the San Antonio Spurs. Who has gotten in trouble with the law? Who has tried to stand out and grab all of the attention? Is there anyone who has tattoos all over the place? Where is all the flash that some other teams have? None of them have been arrested and they don’t do stupid and illegal things. No one hogs the spotlight like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. They don’t have visible and distracting tattoos all over the place. They don’t have flashy plays that get them in the highlight reel. They do what they are supposed to do on and off the court. They are a fundamentally sound team. They go out and win games on the court and don’t get in trouble off the court. Another example is Marvin Harrison. He does not showboat like Chad Johnson, try to highlight every story like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss, and doesn’t break the law like Chris Henry. He lets his actions on the field speak for themselves. These are the people you don’t see on the highlight reel. They do what they are supposed to do but are not recognized for this. Parents, you should either set a good example for your kids or guide them to people who are good examples for them. If you keep letting them see all the bad examples out there and not show them good examples like Tiger Woods, then your kids will start to emulate them and that’s not good.

Last weekend, my brother actually graduated from high school. At one point I had lost hope for him but he woke up and smelled the coffee. He has not only graduated, but he has done it on time. He will be attending Edinboro in the fall so brother, I have one piece of advice for you: Make sure you go to college with at least $600 so that you can buy books. I had a friend who learned this the hard way.

In an update to that house fire last week, I told you there wasn’t a babysitter. Those mothers were negligent and not fit to be parents. At least they confessed to it. It is one thing if the oldest was 13 or over, but your oldest is 8, don’t leave them home alone; bad things can and will happen.

My tune of the week is a tribute to not only the Cleveland Cavaliers but to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization that makes money but refuses to field a team that competes. On June 30, I urge fans going to the game to participate in the protest saying that we are fed up with what has been going on. This year will be the 15^th year in a row that the Pirates have not been to the playoffs. To whoever is going to the game, wear the color green. Before the game, there will be a protest outside and in the 3^rd inning, participants will leave the stadium. The green will represent money leaving. I was too young to remember the Pirates being in the playoffs and I am sick of it. While they are not the laughingstock of professional sports, they are the standard by which futility is measured.

Tune of the Week: http://rob.underwood2005.googlepages.com/NaNaHeyHeyGoodbye.mp3

Quotes of the week:

“It’s better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterward.” -Baltasar Gracian

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work” -Peter Drucker

“The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children.” -King Edward VIII

“Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to become as mediocre as possible” -Margret Mead

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.” –Miss Piggy

My advice for you this week is simple. Do something positive and be a good role model. Don’t break the law or you will end up in jail, like my cousin.

Point Made