Sunday Musings: Missing Tales, The ACC and Random

Upon reflecting on the week I noticed that the buzz over the accusations against Ben Roethlisberger where less than one would expect over a Super Bowl winning QB. Fortunately I was not alone as a number of outlets (for example here) noted that in particular ESPN was fairly low key on the matter. Whether its who Roethlisberger is, or his connections to soon to be released tv shows, his status as QB (rather than receiver) or his race the overall seriousness of the charges versus the coverage seemed way under (certainly relative to the Spurrior v. SEC fandom pissing contest over Tebow's universal acclaim) to what we've come to expect on celebrities and the law. While I'm loathe to decipher exactly why Roethlisberger gets the velvet glove its hard not to see that for whatever reason Roethlisberger has gotten a free pass


College Football and The ACC
I think (and its a bit early for predictions) that the media is looking for the ACC story. The Big 10 sucks has been played out and while the Tebow/SEC hype machine I'm sure will beyond bearable there's still at least 2% of the time to fill with non-SEC stories. In this gaping chasm the story line could go something like the ACC is now an elite football conference. G-Tech, Miami, North Carolina are all expected to be up and comers and V-Tech has the potential to be a mythical national championship contender. More importantly the ACC is involved in 3 of the biggest non-conference games (V-Tech v. Alabama, Nebraska at V-Tech, and Miami v. Oklahoma). While I actually don't think the ACC will fully break through (i.e., my prediction) if there are upsets look for the ACC is Back or ACC has arrived meme to be ubiquitous.

Other Randomness
As crazy as it sounds it's almost NFL training camp season. Training Camp is the time of year where fans get excited about a teams potential, NFL junkies get excited about the last few roster cuts and backup rookies, and NFL teams get excited that they can steal money via things called exhibitions games. Here's a few things I'll have an eye on this exhibition season: Brady's knee, the Browns' QB competition (again), Eagles Defense (sans Jim Johnson), The Rookie QBs (Sanchez, Stafford, and Freeman), Ocho Cinco hanging with Carson Palmer, injuries. What do you got?