Mike Florio, the lowest scumbag in sports journalism

Mike Florio is liar. I'm not just talking about any kind of a liar either. I am talking about a liar for hire. I am talking about goddamnable liar. I'm talking about a fork-tonged lying asshole. I'm talking about a guy who manufactures false sports stories and publishes them because he knows he can get a rise out of the fans. His street cred is 0.000. I mean to tell you that he has no street-cred at all. He is certainly the child-product of pair of alcoholics, as he lies when it would be easier to tell the truth.

Regrettably, Mike Florio's handers at NBC sports are complicit in the deception. Florio's lies makes great copy, and good money. They increase traffic and interest in the NFL during off-peak periods, such during the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. Mike is good for business, goddamnable liar though he may be.

I have done a bit of research over the course of the past 8 or 9 hours, and it seems more and more abundantly clear that most of false Donovan McNabb trade rumors propgated over the past 4 years have erupted from one geyser of lies and deception: Mike Florio and Profootballtalk.com. We should note that Donovan McNabb has been the subject of 1,000 trade rumors over the past 4 years. All Donovan McNabb trade rumors have been proven false. McNabb has played for Philly and nobody else but Philly for the past 4 years. Ergo the reports of an immanent trade have always been false.

So far, Florio is 0-for-6 in trade rumors regarding McNabb in the year 2010. He's already floated the St. Louis lie twice, and both Devaney and Spagnuolo have done everything short of falling him a fool. Consider the last lie Florio told: McNabb was going to St. Louis in exchange for the #33 pick and O.J. Atogwe.

Anybody who knows the Rams, and some of the basic bylaws of the NFL, instantly knew that this report is a bloody lie. Atogwe is not under contract at the moment. He is a restricted free agent. He has not signed his tender. This means the Rams do not have him under contract in any way. According to the NFL bylaws, you cannot trade a player who is not under contract. Why? Because you don't trade in human flesh, as in slavery, you trade contracts. If you don't have a contract to trade, you can't trade a contract. Does this make sense to you? I hope it does.

A simple knowledge of the facts exposes the latest Florio lie as the invented falsehood it is.

Does Florio understand the bylaws of the league regarding trades? Does Florio even care? If he does, it doesn't show. He wanted to float the rumor anyway.

Interestingly enough, while researching the history of false reports from Florio, I stumbled upon this underground gem. Florio reported that before the Wonderlic test at the 2010 NFL Combine, Tim Tebow asked the players to bow their heads and pray for God's blessings in taking the test. Florio reported that one unnamed player told Tebow to "Shut the fuck up." Of course, this is a fairly sensational rumor for anybody who doesn't like Tebow's evangelical fire.

There's only one problem with the report: The events never happened. Tebow never asked players to bow their heads and pray. Nobody had the opportunity to tell him to "Shut the fuck up." So far, every player tested that day has manifested a quizzical look when asked about these events. We're even having some trouble confirming that the players take the Wonderlic in class room groups. One report maintains that players take the test in private booths on computers.

Still, Florio draws the inference that these events show the difficulties and resistance Tebow may encounter on the next level. What events? The events never happened. It is interesting that most mainstream sports authorities chose not to report this story. They knew it was sketchy at best. They would have known about it before Florio, had the events actually taken place.

Why Florio is not a pariah inside the sports journalism community, I will never understand. When this fraud clearly invents stories ex nillo and reports them as fact, how can you treat this guy as a fellow-journalist?

Top 10 Blu-Ray releases I am looking forward too

So I thought I would take time out from commenting on our sorry economic state and write a blog entry on one of my favorite subjects: Blu-Ray. For those of you who don't know yet, Blu-ray is everything it is cracked up to be and some. Some ardent DVD collectors are not pleased that there collections are outdated, and some pirates are not pleased that it is difficult to rip and trade these disks, but if you rent them or buy them (and I do both) you will love them. A 622% increase in resolution, extension of the color space, and quantum improvements in the audio stream make the Blu-Ray experience better than going to the theater... If you have a nice large screen... preferably a DLP.

So, as the format is just a little more than 2 years old, many many great titles are as yet unavailable. Since I have faint hopes somebody in the big-5 studios may pass by this page, I thought I would publish my wishlist.

1. The Incredibles: With all due respect to Wall-e, which is a masterpiece, I still think the Incredibles is the greatest movie Pixar has ever made. It is my favorite movie of all time, and it is a damnable shame that this movie is not yet out on Blu-ray. Disney needs to get this out on the double-quick time.
2. The Exorcist: With all due respect to John Carpenter's Halloween, many will tell you that the Exorcist is the greatest horror film of all time. I am in this camp. The Exorcist DVD stinks. Warners did not do a good job on the digital master. This movie has never enjoyed a good release for the home viewer. A major restoration project should be undertaken here, and a reference quality master should be created.
3. The Minority Report: Not a big fan of Steven Spielberg, I hate Tom Cruise and everything he stands for, and I believe Colin Ferrel only gets parts because he is a dirty bisexual bastard who sleeps with anything. With that said, I love this movie. Along with Schindler's List, it is Spielberg's finest work. It is another Philip K. Dick masterpiece perfectly communicated on the screen. I just noted that TBS presented a true HD version of this film this weekend, which means the Blu-ray cannot be far away. Incidentally, the HD master TBS showed looked fantastic. The movie could have been vastly improved by replacing Tom Cruise with Mel Gibson and Colin Ferrel with Liam Neeson.
   
4. Dr. Strangelove: I regard Dr. Strangelove as the greatest film of all time. No equivocations. Sorry Copola, sorry Orson Wells, sorry Hitchcock. Stanley Kuprick is the greatest director of all time, and this was his greatest masterpiece. Can't say enough good things about it. It is also the finest work in Peter Sellar's stellar career. Like so many older films, a major restoration project will have to be undertaken to restore this film and make a perfect reference master. Still, this must be done, and the sooner the better.
   
5. Braveheart: We've been waiting entirely too long for this one. I don't know what is holding up the show. When I left the theater after seeing this one in 1995, I was convinced I had seen the great film ever made. No film ever more justly won the Best Picture award. Time and historical inaccuracy have softened my opinion of this film, but it is still one hell of movie classic. It should be out on Blu-Ray by now.
6. Aliens: Probably James Cameron's absolute best movie. No, the Titanic was not his best. Very chicky and deathy, but not his best. This absolutely should be out on Blu-ray. I cannot believe that such a crowd pleaser was not in the first wave of movies release on High-def. I am stunned that it did not come out on HD-DVD immediately, and I am stunned that it still has not arrived on Blu-Ray.
   
7. True Lies: Arnold Schwarzenegger's finest movie. Also one of James Cameron's best movies, and that is saying a hell of a lot. Can anyone offer any explanation as to why this movie is not out on Blu-ray? I don't think any rational explanation exists.
   
8. Star Wars: I am talking about the original, not all the other stuff. Need I make any case for this?
   
9. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut. I personally regard this as the funniest movie of all time. Hysterical, pure comedy. Animation of the type Trey Parker and Matt Stone do scales extremely well. so the DVD still looks good when popped into the PS3. Nevertheless, this movie deserves a Blu-Ray.
10. Escape from New York: When I was a young man, there were three science fiction flicks that I liked better than all the others. They were The Road Warrior, and Bladerunner, and Escape from New York. The Road Warrior and Bladerunner have long been on Blu-ray. They look terrific. Escape from New York has not yet appeared. Escape from New York is a grindhouse masterpiece from the greatest grandmaster of the grindhouse: John Carpenter. He's made a lot of my favorite films, but this is close to the top. I would say that only The Thing is better.