Apr 17 2008
Tony Reali Loves Him Some Blogs
So I posted video of the Barry Hall sucker punch on this blog on Sunday, then on FanHouse on Monday. With Leather picked it up from my blog on Monday, too. Guess where it ends up on Tuesday?
Yes, indeed, it’s all over ESPN. Clearly, that’s the work of Tony Reali, host of Around the Horn and “statboy” on Pardon the Interruption, who once famously told Jay Mariotti, “Don’t take my Deadspin away from me.” Reali even knew (and reported) that Barry Hall had been suspended for seven games.
A few thoughts:
- Michael Wilbon admits to not knowing the rules to Australian football. He could learn them here or here.
- Woody Paige said he actually prefers Aussie Rules over the NFL and soccer. Given his past anti-soccer screeds, half of that does not surprise me in the least.
- Barry Melrose, hockey analyst, is “shocked by the violence.” Ha ha.
If this gets us any closer to seeing AFL games on basic cable, we can all thank Barry Hall for that. He may be just a fool with a sharp left hook, but he’s raised the profile of his sport exponentially in America. This is the most anyone has talked about Australian football on ESPN since that network actually showed VFL games back in the 80s.
You’re welcome.
(Thanks to Ryano for the ESPN video.)
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Is it just me, or are all of those talking heads diminishing who brutal that was? When Carmelo threw punches everyone was all over him but now they’re making jokes just because they don’t understand it? They’re falling back on lazy stereotypes of Australians.
Even a baseball player thinks the Eagles are wussies for not standing up to Barry Hall!
Yes, but the question is. Is any publicity good publicity ?
I personally thought that Michael Johns the former USAFL player on American Idol might have been the one to get the code on TV, but after he was unceremoniously dumped by American viewers, there wasn’t much of an opportunity to get it out there ….
If only they’d show some of the actual skills that Hall has other than for punching other players, then people might actually get an appreciation for the subtelties of the game.
Hey Dave, I know this is unrelated to Barry Hall, but I think you might have an interest in this. My college sponsored something called “the world’s largest soccer game”, a mass participation soccer game. We got over 1,000 players, however, it turned out something to be a combination of soccer and rugby. Sort of like a modern-day “mob football”.
Here is the link: http://www.oneonta.edu/wlsg/
There are also a couple low quality videos on YouTube
Dave, you need to fix your email problems. I don’t think anyone can actually contact you directly at the moment.
Sean: The dave_at_davesfootballblog.com address is working just fine for me over here. Try contacting me there again today.