George Foster

Other Opinions George Foster Joe Namath and the most super, Super Bowl
When the underdog New York Jets were eliminated from Super Bowl
contention recently, it was a reminder of another underdog Jets team a
little over 40 years ago. In the 1969 Super Bowl, Jets quarterback Joe
Willie Namath changed, not just football, but the world of sports
forever.

Other Opinions George Foster ‘Roids & Baseball: Soap opera never ends
Why is it that every time a Major League baseball star admits using
steroids, the sports world seems to erupt? By now we should be more
stunned when discovering a successful player from the 1980s or ‘90s DIDN’T
use performance-enhancing drugs.

Other Opinions George Foster Back in the early days of Northern
Express, I used to write a regular sports column for the paper.
That was the era of the Bad Boy Pistons, the seemingly eternally inept
“Dead” Wings, and football star Mark Ingram, the father (MSU receiver and
Super Bowl hero), not the Heisman Trophy-winning son, Mark Ingram.
With the explosion of cable sports coverage and the Internet, it seems to
me that the public’s interest in sports and athletes has increased
dramatically in the last decade. Also, we’ve heard more and more readers
of the Express comment that the regular sports content of the past is
missed.

Random Thoughts George Foster End of an era for the Red Wings
George Foster 6/1/09
What do we have to do in order to get respect around here? The Detroit Red Wings have now played in 6 of the last 15 Stanley Cup Finals, a virtual dynasty in the modern era of hockey.
Yet, outside the good state of Michigan, the Red Wings are a decided underdog to the Pittsburgh Penguins in these Finals. Why? Because in a league dominated by celebrated players with matinee idol looks in their early 20’s, Detroit is old school, literally.
For starters, 36 year-old Chris Osgood has played goalie for what seems like an eternity. Ossie tended the nets in Detroit’s first Stanley Cup Final of this era when he was a lad in his early 20s. Supporting Osgood, at 39, Nicklas Lidstrom may still be the best defenseman in the league and captains the Wings.
Detroit’s regular lineup includes a host of grizzled veterans such Kris Draper, the team’s best face-off performer and a ripe 38 years old. Brian Rafalski at 35 is the Wing’s second best defenseman. Ten players 30 and older make up the core of Detroit’s best players – certainly the oldest squad in the league.

Random Thoughts George Foster What‘s new at Northern Express
Geprge Foster 3/30/09
Here at the bustling compound of the Northern Express Weekly administrative offices, we received a revealing phone call last week. The caller wondered if the Express had gone out of business. It seems our newspapers were missing from their usual shelf in a local business when the caller stopped by to pick up his copy.
The absence of papers was actually due to a different problem - the Express papers had all been gobbled up at the location in question. While some of the other free publications seem to always languish on the newsstands, Northern Express is more popular than ever.

Features George Foster Let me get this straight.
President Bush and some legislators don’t want to loan the failing U.S. auto industry $25 billion to help it back on its feet? Not so long ago, the president was one of the first to plead with Americans taxpayers to fork over $700 billion to the banking industry with little accountability required by these Wall Street executives.
The administration is also quick to question the patriotism of any American who balks at his plans for funding the Iraq occupation. Conservative estimates ring up that conflict at $12 billion PER MONTH, $16 billion if you add in the Afghanistan War. Even though Americans were assured at the outset of the Baghdad invasion that Iraqi oil revenues would fund the war, U.S. taxpayers will pay (gulp) many trillions of dollars before our recent Middle East adventures are completed.

Random Thoughts George Foster Big Government to the rescue?
Yikes, what happened over the last few days?
A little over a week ago Senator John McCain assured us the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Yet, last night President George Bush warned us that the economy is melting down so fast that a crisis of unprecedented proportions will occur if we don’t implement his radical plan immediately.

Random Thoughts George Foster This must be my mid-life crisis. I continually hear how men my age and younger often experience a mid-life crisis after being married with children for decades. My married life has only spanned three years, so my youth-based fantasy can hardly be blamed on family fatigue.
You see, for the past couple of years, I have dreamed of playing rugby one more time. My life revolved around playing rugby for about six years in the early 1970s. As a member of the Detroit and Michigan State rugby football clubs at various times, it was the most memorable time of my life. During the fall and spring, two nights per week were spent practicing, while Saturdays were set aside for games at locations around the Midwest.
American football was actually derived from rugby. Having been seriously involved in both as organized sports, my opinion is that playing rugby is much more fun. I think of rugby as a combination of football and soccer. When you view rugby for the first time, each team’s 15 players seem to be playing something akin to football in soccer uniforms.

Random Thoughts George Foster This year’s Olympic Games in China have been hyped even beyond the normal fevered pitch that we are used to every four years. By spending $40 billion on the games, razing many miles of slums, and deploying ten of thousands of security forces for a Gestapo-like atmosphere, the story of China’s rise into the modern world has overshadowed the competitive events themselves.
Let’s talk about the participants for a change. Going into the games, the following are the biggest issues concerning the athletes:

Random Thoughts George Foster This year, for the first time, I spent Father’s Day without my dad.
Maybe the holiday heightened my sense of loss, but it seemed that the national media converged more than usual around memorialized fathers.
First, we heard over and over how TV political moderator Tim Russert is no longer here for his son or to honor his own father. No conversation of Russert’s rise to political prominence is complete without the well-documented inspiration from his dad - Big Russ, a sanitation worker from Buffalo.

Random Thoughts George Foster President Bush is right. It doesn’t make sense for him to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games being held in China later this year. He has pointed out that an opportunity would be lost to communicate with officials of our somewhat isolated rival.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in particular, is heavily criticizing the Bush Administration for refusing to make a protest statement at the Games. Barack Obama, too, has belatedly called for the President skip the opening ceremonies. The other major candidate, John McCain seems uncertain about what should be done and has stopped short of any support for a protest.
Primarily, Clinton wants Bush to protest because of the illegal invasion and occupation by China of the sovereign nation of Tibet. Sound familiar? Ironically, similar circumstances did not stop her and others of the Morality Police against China from supporting the U.S. government’s adventure into Iraq five years ago.

Random Thoughts George Foster After almost 50 years of rigid communist rule, change is finally, finally coming to Cuba.
An eruption of modernization is imminent in the isolated Caribbean island, but not because Fidel Castro finally made his resignation official. Handing over presidential power to brother Raul Castro only ensures that Fidel’s strong-armed rule will continue to suffocate the Cuban people if the Castro clan has its way.

Random Thoughts George Foster Roger lied. Or at least the chances are better than 50/50 that Clemens fibbed when he told a congressional committee that he never used steroids, HGH, or any other performance enhancing drugs.
Most baseball insiders estimate that 60% to 75% of Major League Baseball (MLB) players used banned drugs in some form at the height of their popularity several years ago. Even if Clemens never partook (though he sure looks guilty), the percentages indicate thousands of other MLB players cheated.

Random Thoughts George Foster For those of you who love the Super Bowl exactly the way it is, you need not read further. For the rest of us, the Super Bowl is an innocent football game on steroids. Nothing symbolizes the excess of commercialization and celebrity hero-worship in this country more than the Super Bowl.
Yet, I love football – I played in high school and still follow the sport closely. I have viewed almost every Detroit Lions game since 1958. The NFL playoffs are can’t-miss TV viewing for me, as with other hard-core fans.
As you can see, I am dripping with credibility in the football-fan community – so hear me out. Instead of just complaining about the Super Bowl, these are my solutions to its problems cited below.

Random Thoughts George Foster Don’t get me wrong.
I am not a Neanderthal who detests women asserting themselves in public or the work place. Nothing is more attractive than an independent-minded woman who speaks her peace - I married one. Whoa mama, don’t ever change.
Hillary Clinton has never been accused of being a shrinking violet, either. She is also smart and an accomplished Senator of New York. Yet, I don’t believe she should be president.
First of all, electing Hillary would perpetuate a Clinton family dynasty. You may have already forgotten how experts believed Clinton-fatigue was a factor in kicking out the Democrats, thus George W. Bush sweeping to the presidency in 2000. Now we want to bring back a Clinton because of Bush-fatigue? If Hillary Clinton is elected in 2008 and serves two terms, Clintons and Bushes would have monopolized the White House for (gulp) 28 consecutive years. Just end it, people, END IT.