ChickOpinion: NFL

For the record, I'm a Patriots fan;
my fiancé is a Packers owner.

Good Friday morning, everyone! :)
My kittens have completely destroyed the toys we bought them a month and a half ago. I went to the pet store and started looking for new toys. They're expensive! So I came home and started looking at the materials I had at my house. I realized I had some polar fleece left over from some previous projects, some polyester filler, and catnip! It's football season, so I decided our kittens should have the opportunity to "participate," too! These are the finished products I've made so far, and the instructions to make them are below! Pick your team and watch your cats enjoy football season!

Dead store-bought mouse toys...

First, get a remnant (50% off at Jo-Ann Fabrics) of your favorite sports team's polar fleece (polar fleece is the best fabric for this, in my opinion, because the kittens can get their claws into it).

Cut out two logos that are opposite each other.

Put the pieces together right sides in.

Sew almost all the way around the edge.

Turn the toy right side out. Use a pencil or pen to help, if necessary.

Get some poly-fill.

Stuff the toy about half full.

Then get your catnip, and put a few pinches in to the toy. Use your finger to push it around the fill to the outside. If you leave it in the middle of the poly-fill, the kitties won't be able to smell it as easily and will ignore the toy.

My kittens were so excited--they didn't want to wait!

Once you've filled it up all the way with the poly-fill, you should have a bit of a gap left open.

With a needle and thread (doubled), sew it up!

Make sure you knot it quite well. These kittens are going to attack this thing!

Finished product!

Test run...

Success!

These are the toys I've made so far.

The kittens love them!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with football! :)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Monday Night Football is an American tradition; something millions of us look forward to at the end of the longest day of the week. But this season, Monday Night Football has taken a turn for the worse. Last night, the worst call in NFL history was made during the Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks game, costing the Packers the game. This is the play and the call that has caused the controversy. The rookie quarterback Russell Wilson throws a Hail Mary pass to the end zone. Golden Tate (the Seahawks receiver) pushes Green Bay defender Sam Shields down while Green Bay safety Jennings catches the ball and pulls it to his chest, therefore having an interception and a touchback. But Tate had a hand on it as Jennings caught the ball with both hands and by the time they got to the ground, Tate had two hands on the ball. The refs called it a "simultaneous catch"and in that situation, it goes to the passers. As you can see from the video, though, it was NOT a simultaneous catch!

This is the latest and most serious call in a series of terrible calls from replacement referees. These are small college and public school referees. The best college referees have jobs to do: calling the best college teams' games correctly. The real NFL referees are in a labor dispute with the NFL. They want higher pay for the work the NFL wants them to do, they want to keep their current pension plan, and they want better job security This Bleacher Report article breaks down what the referees want. In the article, Schottey states, "The actual dollar-and-cents difference between the NFL and its officials is a problem smaller than both sides would admit." LA Times writer Bill Plaschke says in this article, "When you crunch the numbers, if the NFL gave the locked-out referees everything they wanted, it would cost about $100,000 extra per team per season. That equals about four games' pay for one of a team's lowest-paid players." He doesn't give his source on that and I don't know where to find the "numbers" he is talking about, but it's probably accurate.

These are just some of the tweets that were posted last night (taken from this ESPN story):

These tweets are from professional players of all sports, including other football players who are impacted both positively and negatively by the outcome of this game! To be honest, my favorite tweet isn't included in this list. It's since been removed from Twitter, but it was from Wisconsin Senator Jon Erpenbach and gave Roger Goodell's phone number. Goodell is the NFL commissioner. Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews also posted Goodell's number on his Facebook page. Had I been awake at this point, I would have loved to join the thousands of people who called him.

Last night's call was absolutely inexcusable. We need to get the real refs back! These inexperienced officials are ruining the season and the NFL is going to lose credibility if this keeps going. I know I already feel like the wins this season are worth less than they were last season. Sure, Seattle is now 2-1 but so what? They won because of a mistake, not because they were the better team. It's a couple million dollars: pocket change for the NFL. So come on, Mr. Goodell: do what it takes to get our Monday (and Thursday and Sunday) Night Football back to normal!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

References:

ChickOpinion

Pages

Friday, October 5, 2012

DIY NFL Catnip Toys

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Replacement Refs Taking Away from NFL

Favorite Sites