WTF ref? (photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

I’ve always thought that my team Arsenal always seem to have bad luck with match results. But could there be a referee conspiracy instead? In light of match fixing news in Turkey and corruption rumours constantly circulating FIFA, I just don’t know. It almost feels like I, as a Gunner, am already expecting bad calls against my team as if we’re the referee whipping boys. And some of these calls are just downright ridiculous just like the penalty given in the 2-1 win over Udinese. Handball? And not to mention last year’s speechless red card for Van Persie. And it happens so often that I’ve somehow accepted it as second nature that referees are going to give some ridiculous decision against us and tolerate it like how Americans in general treat the nutter Tea Party movement. But going back to those 2 bad decisions, just read an interesting article at Untold Arsenal about “The Busacca Moment” bringing to light a pretty interesting coincidence. That makes my blood boil a little, (though somewhat tempered by Szczesny’s awesome penalty save, Arsenal keeper for life!)

Am I looking through life through a Gunners lens here or can a neutral somehow make sense with this assessment?

What’s with all the same names???

Adrian Peterson for the Bears

Adrian Peterson for the Vikings

Coincidences happen and but in American Football, this seems to come up quite a lot and in weird ways. It’s like playing Madden NFL (or a soccer equivalent like Football Manager) through many seasons till you get new young players named “James Manning” or “Willie Polamalu” after the famous ones we know have gone older and retired, and it seems to happen like this a lot in the NFL. Are we in some sort of real life “Matrix” here where an unseen programmer comes up with real players’ names in the same way? First, you’ll get these uncommon last name similarities of whom the players are unrelated as far as I know:

• Dan Cody / Shaun Cody / Terrence Cody
• Antrell Rolle / Samari Rolle / Myron Rolle
• Warren Sapp / Benny Sapp / Bob Sapp / Patrick Sapp / Ricky Sapp
• Jameel McClain / Le’Ron McClain / Rolando McClain
• Sidney Rice / Ray Rice / Jerry Rice / Simeon Rice
• Max Starks / Randy Starks / Duane Starks / Scott Starks / James Starks
• Reggie Wells / Beanie Wells / Chris Wells / Jonathan Wells
• Ernie Sims / Ryan Sims / Eugene Sims
• Charles Woodson / Rod Woodson / Darren Woodson / Andre Woodson / Stoney Woodson
• Mike Bell / Tatum Bell / Demetrius Bell / Kahlil Bell / Jacob Bell / Joique Bell
• Champ Bailey / Boss Bailey / Patrick Bailey
• DJ Ware / Demarcus Ware / Andre Ware / Matt Ware / Jeremy Ware
• Perrish Cox / Bryan Cox / Derek Cox / Mike Cox / Kennard Cox
• Lesean McCoy/Colt McCoy/Matt McCoy/Gerald McCoy/Anthony McCoy
• Will Herring / Kim Herring / Keegan Herring
• Darren McFadden / Walter McFadden /Bryant McFadden / Jaevery McFadden /Mike McFadden
• Nick Harper / Rod Harper / Justin Harper / Roman Harper
• Leonard Pope / Geoffrey Pope / Derrick Pope
• Deion Branch /Tyvon Branch / Alan Branch
• Golden Tate / Brandon Tate / Ben Tate
• Stephen Mcgee / Terrence McGee / Scotty McGee
• Marion Barber / Tiki & Ronde Barber (twins) / Shawn Barber / Dominique Barber
• Dane Fletcher / London Fletcher / Damion Fletcher / Bradley Fletcher / John Fletcher
• Mike Clayton / Mark Clayton / Keenan Clayton / Thomas Clayton / Patrick Clayton
• Greg Carr / Chris Carr / Brandon Carr

And this is a list without the Lewises, the Johnsons, the Smiths, the Williamses, because hey, they’re all pretty common too. But maybe still, that’s okay, coincidences happen. Well, then you get some other unrelated screwball same-names at the same positions like:

• Marshall & Kevin Faulk, both running backs
• William & Randall Gay, both cornerbacks
• Michael & Reggie Bush, both running backs
• and crazy 4 Mike, Tatum, Joique & Kahlil Bell, all running backs!

OK, still simple coincidence, perhaps. And now here’s when it gets weird. Now here are those with EXACTLY the same names.

• Mike Adams (Arizona DB) & Mike Adams (Cleveland CB)
• Chris Clemons (Miami FS) & Chris Clemons (Philadelphia DE)
• Will Allen (Tampa Bay FS) & Will Allen (Miami CB)
• Chris Baker (New England TE) & Chris Baker (Denver DE)
• Michael Bennett (San Diego HB) & Michael Bennett (Tampa Bay DE)
• Anthony Gonzalez (Indianapolis WR) & Anthony Gonzalez (Atlanta TE)
• Chris Henry (Houston HB) & Chris Henry (Cincinnati WR)
• Mike Jenkins (Atlanta WR) & Mike Jenkins (Dallas CB)
• Charlie Johnson (Indianapolis T) & Charlie Johnson (Carolina DE)
• Chris Johnson (Tennessee HB) & Chris Johnson (Oakland CB)
• Michael Johnson (Cincinnati DE) & Michael Johnson (New York Giants FS)
• Alex Smith (San Francisco QB) & Alex Smith (Philadelphia TE)
• Marcus Smith (Buffalo DE) & Marcus Smith (Baltimore WR)
• John Wade (St. Louis CB) & John Wade (Oakland C)
• Kyle Williams (Buffalo DT) & Kyle Williams (Seattle T)
• Roy Williams (Cincinnati SS) & Roy Williams (Dallas WR)

16 pairs from a pool of only a couple of thousand?

And then not only that, now it gets EVEN MORE WEIRD with the same names people playing at the same positions:

• Adrian Peterson (Chicago Bears running back) & Adrian Peterson (Minnesota Vikings running back)
• Steve Smith (Carolina Panthers wide receiver) & Steve Smith (NY Giants wide receiver)
• Zach Miller (Jacksonville Jaguars tight end) & Zach Miller (Oakland Raiders tight end)

And these are players who are pretty much still active!

And then, another one to add, what’s with all the quarterback “Matts” in the NFL these days?

• Matt Hasselbeck (Seahawks)
• Matt Cassel (Chiefs)
• Matt Ryan (Falcons)
• Matt Moore (Panthers)
• Matt Stafford (Lions)
• Matt Schaub (Texans)
• Matt Leinart (Texans)
• Matt Gutierrez (Bears)
• Matt Baker (Bills)
• Matt Flynn (Packers)

Even for those who started at some point this season, you’re looking at Hasselbeck, Moore, Ryan, Cassel, Stafford & Schaub, 6 out of a pool of 44 quarterbacks since 15 Oct 2010 who’ve started a game this season, a whopping 13.6%.

So there you go! This proves we are living in the Matrix, and that some unseen God Gamer is playing us and that the atoms that make up our bodies are the pixels in the computer, all generated through pre-programmed algorithms in a giant real life supercomputer! NOOOOooooooo….!

OK, jokes aside… I think I’ve spent waaaay too much time thinking about this. Just had to get it out of my chest and move on!

Guy Whimper, awesomest misnomer since "Little John"

Some other NFL name observations:

• Would love to see the 3 G-kowskis in the same team, Bruce Gradkowski completes a pass to Rob/Dan Gronkowski, and Stephen Gostkowski finishes the play with the extra point. How awesome is that?
• My favourite wimpy name for an NFL player, Guy Whimper Offensive Tackle for the Jaguars
• Not really football but I love the same name: Evan Longoria baseball pitcher & Eva Longoria actress. I bet Evan’s teammates will never leave it down.

Life in Technicolor II, (I guess Life in Technicolor I was the teaser…), this is hands down my favourite music video of all time. With all the pretentious crap teenagery videos that’s peppering MTV, (on hindsight, I’m actually with Kanye on that Taylor Swift issue, God, she’s annoying…), or mindless oversexed displays of body gyrations (think Shakira’s She Wolf) this was a real breath of fresh air. What other trailer elicits all these adjectives at the same time: funny, nostalgic, beautiful, inspiring, clever, thoughtful, cute, and even… creepy… all at the same time? Check out Puppet Chris Martin’s creepy appearance at 3:45. Chills.

This should be Arsenal’s new pregame stadium song, to rile up the juices, better than the old fogey Elvis Presley’s “Wonder of You”. No wonder the Emirates Stadium seem so quiet. If they’d played this or Viva La Vida, that’ll surely bring the club up. And on a sad note, poor Aaron Ramsey… boy, seeing that injury was heartbreaking, but for some strange reason, I feel like that could be the spur that kicks Arsenal’s sails into second wind. Come on you Gunners! And come on you Emirates Stadium A/V guy, play that Life in Technicolor II song. Make this our anthem!

There’s a wild wind blowing,
Down the corner of my street
Every night there the headlights are glowing

Theres a cold war coming,
On the radio I heard
Baby it’s a violent world

Oh love don’t let me go
Won’t you take me where the streetlights glow
I could hear it coming
I could hear the sirens sound
Now my feet won’t touch the ground

Time came a-creepin’
Oh and time’s a loaded gun
Every road is a ray of light
It goes o-o-on
Time only can lead you on
Still it’s such a beautiful night

Oh love don’t let me go
Won’t you take me where the streetlights glow
I could hear it coming
Like a serenade of sound
Now my feet won’t touch the ground

Gravity release me,
And dont ever hold me down
Now my feet won’t touch the ground.

The lyrics just feels right…

Who dat Superbowl XLIV champs?

Ok. So I’m a diehard Ravens fan, but there are just some games where I just feel as passionate rooting for another team. Cases in point: NY Giants beating the NE Patriots couple of years back. Really wanted the Cardinals to beat the Steelers last year and got slightly… only slightly, depressed when they didn’t in a pretty heartbreaking fashion. And today, when the Saints finally achieved their storybook ending. I think this is the storybook endings to end all sports storybook endings. The kind of story that people make movies out of them. Seriously, if it needs any more reiteration… New Orleans, post Katrina. The tragedy. The team who has never reached the Superbowl and who has ever only won 2 games in the postseason. (this season, they won 3, more than they ever had combined in their entire history!) People thinking that the city won’t bounce back. Few years later, hosting the Superbowl. 9 days away from Mardi Gras. Playing against an almost invincible quarterback in Peyton Manning, the best athlete to play the game. Coming back from 10 points down to win it in the end. Jeezus.

Come to think of it, the past 3 superbowls have been priceless. Giants and Steelers winning it at the final moment and now, this. It’s like having 3 Liverpool comebacks against Milan in a row in the Champions League.

Congrats to the Saints. Can’t wait for the movie to come out in a few years. (Luke Wilson to play Drew Brees?)

To rub more salt into our wounds, Nicklas Bendtner was literally caught with his pants down at a nightclub after drinking his sorrows away at a nightclub after the loss. Disgraceful. More gloat ammo for Man U fans.

And if that didn’t get any worse, Suleiman Alphonso Omondi, a 29 year-old Gooner in Kenya, hanged himself after the game. He died wearing an Arsenal jersey. Even as I believe whole heartedly that life is too beautiful for one to take, even his own, I’m not gonna wag my finger and say he was stupid man to have done that to himself. I’m not gonna preach my opinion about how we all shouldn’t take this too seriously, this is just a game, yada yada. All I’m gonna say is that it just bloody breaks my heart to hear this.

That’s it for now. I poured my sorrow out and I’m gonna go back to being numb again. It’s a coping mechanism.

Ben out.