Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Inception/Conception

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Joey
6 Comments

Please welcome new contributor Joey, with thoughts on fandom and parenthood.

Since I arrived as a freshman at Chapel Hill in the fall of 1997, I’ve based most (if not all) of my social calendar around Carolina Sports, with heavy emphasis placed on football and basketball. If there was a Tar Heel game being played, I was either there in person, or planted in front of a television watching it. Hell, I had to get my wife to assure me that we could accommodate our wedding guests by arranging for a meaningless UNC/UVA conference basketball game in February to be on an accessible television. Bear in mind, this was a wedding reception that was held on-campus at UNC at the Carolina Inn, during which our guest mingled with Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, James Worthy, and other Carolina Hoops dignitaries (Naismith Ceremony at halftime of the game). Long story short, a huge chunk of my identity is wrapped around my fandom.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged | 6 Comments

Responding to Spam Comments

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Shane
5 Comments

WordPress does a great job filtering out spam comments, but sometimes we think it’s good to let the spammers know we still appreciate their efforts. With that in mind, here are some featured spam comments from the past week. For better or worse, these are all real.

Thanks for some other magnificent post. Where else may just anybody get that kind of information in such an ideal method of writing? I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m at the look for such info.
-Background Pictures

Okay, look man, I shouldn’t be doing this, and you can get in a lot of trouble, but paypal me $100 and I’ll write your presentation for you. Because believe me, motherfucker, you’re not going to get this kind of ideal writing anywhere else. Anybody who says you can? Liars, brother. Fucking liars.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged | 5 Comments

The Triangle Prophets, Week Two

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Shane
6 Comments

Every Friday, a group of fearless webmasters and sports fanatics from around the Triangle will gather to predict five college football games against the spread. Every Duke, Carolina, and N.C. State game will be featured, along with a smattering of high profile non-Triangle games. As the season goes along, we’ll keep the standings updated and see who emerges as the one true prophet. Make your predictions in the comment section. Every week, we’ll feature any and all commenters who pick all 5 games correctly.

Current Standings

1. Me – 3 points
1. The Devil Wolf, TRB – 3 points

3. John Watson, The Devil’s Den – 2 points
3. Tar Heel Fan Blog – 2 points
3. William Earnhardt, Site Designer – 2 points

6. James Henderson, Publisher, Pack Pride – 1 point
6. Nate Friedman, UNC football correspondent – 1 point
6 Jim Young, Editor, ACCSports.com – 1 point

 

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Everyone’s Dirty: An Ethical Guide to College Football’s Top 25

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Shane
14 Comments

Folks who know me will tell you in a Carolina heartbeat that I’m a moral man. I want to root for the good guy. I want to embrace the good guy. So in an attempt to filter out the good from the bad, I took a broad look at the black marks marring college football programs and their players and coaches in this year’s preseason AP top 25. (I know the rankings have changed, but such is life.) The results, to put it mildly, are not encouraging. Quick synopsis: watching college football may compromise your soul.

Special thanks to SportsDelve, which compiled a comprehensive list of schools which have been placed on NCAA probation since punishment policies began in 1953, and made the research much easier. Let’s begin at the bottom.

Justice, where is thy stern visage on the gridiron?

25. USC – The Trojans are in the second year of a 2-year bowl ban due to “lack of institutional control” between 2004 and 2009. Reggie Bush was the focus of the sanctions, and the illegal benefits he received from two sports marketers (including a rent-free home for his family) cost the football team 30 football scholarships through 2013. They were forced to vacate the 2004-05 national championship, and Bush was later stripped of his Heisman trophy. USC is second all-time with 15 years spent on probation in program history. Recent graduate Everson Griffen was arrested in Los Angels in January for battery, and had to be subdued with a taser after he grabbed a cop in the groin.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged | 14 Comments

The Queen of Style Checks In

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Carrie
6 Comments

Ever week or thereabouts, our new contributor Carrie will be analyzing uniforms from around the Tobacco Road universe. Today’s assignments are below.

1. Duke Football’s Black Uniforms

Duke's "controversial" new uniforms. Also appears they didn't quite make this play.

It’s not so much the shoulder stripes that concern me with Duke’s new uniforms – I actually think those are quite sharp and on a different uniform (on a different team?) might even lend an (appropriately) militaristic look to the uni – really, I’m bothered by those white helmets. Continue reading →

Posted in Duke, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Future Home of the UNC Wrestling Preview – UFC CONTENT!

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Andrew Westney
Leave a comment

I know what you’re thinking: it’s early September and TRB is just getting around to previewing the wrestling season now?  When UNC pankrationistas have been murmurously anticipating the triumphant return from shoulder surgery of Zac “Crazy Arms” Bennett, the Johnstown Jesus, and the coronation of second-generation champion Corey “Make Mine Moxie” Mock since our near-near-near-miss at the NCAA Championships in March?

As it happens, there are so many subplots to the upcoming campaign that our crack writing staff has just begun to weave it all into a coherent narrative suitable to the pages of a sober sports website rather than a breathless telenovela; also, the schedule is currently unavailable on the team’s official website.  The site’s stark yet bracing reminder, “THERE ARE NO UPCOMING EVENTS”, urges us all to carpe diem– for the beginning is nigh.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Triangle Prophets, Week One

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Shane
5 Comments

Every Friday, a group of fearless webmasters and sports fanatics from around the Triangle will gather to predict five college football games against the spread. Every Duke, Carolina, and N.C. State game will be featured, along with a smattering of high profile non-Triangle games. As the season goes along, we’ll keep the standings updated and see who emerges as the one true prophet. Make your predictions in the comment section. Every week, we’ll feature any and all commenters who pick all 5 games correctly.

The Prophets

1. Jim Young, Editor, ACCSports.com

2. John Watson, The Devil’s Den

3. James Henderson, Publisher, Pack Pride

4. Tar Heel Fan Blog

5. Me*

6. The Devil Wolf, Duke football correspondent, TRB

7. Nate Friedman, UNC football correspondent, TRB

8. William Earnhardt, Site Designer, UNC football junkie, TRB

*Believe me, that joke was not worth the google image search. I should know better.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

The Top 15 Moments from the UNC Foootball Media Guide

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Shane
2 Comments

You can view the guide here. As with the Duke version of the top 15, I’ll be doing this as I go along, so there’s a good chance that #1 won’t be any more compelling than #15. Let’s get it started with a picture of UNC’s new coach, “Sir” Everett Withers.

I was born in 1963 in Charlotte, NC, but my name was born in 1732 in Yorkshire, England

15. Oops!

From the 2011 schedule page:

Oct. 22 – at Clemson – first game at Clemson under head coach Butch Davis

(PR people scuffle around) Ha! Um, funny story… (muffled shouting, sounds of paper crumpling) I’m glad you asked! Just, uh, just give us a minute here… (gunshot)

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, UNC | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The TRB Comments of the Week!

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Shane
3 Comments

Later today, we’ll get to the UNC media guide top 15 and introduce a new prediction feature. For now, it’s the COMMENTS OF THE WEEK, a neglected feature that should have run earlier.

Every week, more or less, we’ll be choosing one comment from the previous week that made our hearts swell with joy, pride, or love. Then we’ll be choosing another that made the rest of our organs swell with shame, hilarity, or disgust. All comments are printed as written.

Positive

Both comments this week come from the Rivalry post, which asked whether Duke and UNC fans would like to see the teams meet in the NCAA tournament. The overwhelming majority of responses, on the post and on twitter, were ‘hell no.’ Nobody wanted the stress, and nobody wanted to accept the awful possibility of losing. Then Andrew put on his badass goggles and took us all to task:

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged | 3 Comments

Happy College Football Kickoff!

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Shane
Leave a comment

Coming later this morning and this afternoon, we’ll be looking at the top 15 moments in the 2011 version of the Duke and UNC football media guides.

For now, check out the season previews: Duke and UNC. This is truly one of the best days of the year. Plus, good riddance to August! Even when we feel like the summer won’t end, we must always keep in mind the persistence of football.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged | Leave a comment