As Gang Green Turns: The Ryan Express Continues to Derail

Article first published as As Gang Green Turns: The Ryan Express Continues to Derail on Blogcritics.



The once hallowed Jets defense, head coach Rex Ryan's version of The Maginot Line, is looking more and more like Swiss cheese. How did Tim Tebow lead a 95-yard drive (and carry the ball for a 20-yard touchdown run)? The answer is the same as how the Germans overcame that supposedly impregnable French barrier in World War II: they simply went around it.

Ryan has made many promises to the fans and his players, but now it seems he just has miles to go before he sleeps - the promises have already been unkept. The 5-5 Jets are in no position to take the division and probably have very little chance of making the playoffs.


Yes, the defense didn't do its job on Thursday night against the Denver Broncos (5-5), but the more important story is Mark Sanchez and the offense. Sanchez still seems like he is treading water out there, while Tebow is doing his best Fran Tarkenton impersonation and making his fans believers. In fact, when Sanchez starts looking around for someone to catch his pass, the opponents are probably happier than the Jets' wide receivers. Chances are just as good for Sanchez to throw a ball that will be intercepted rather than a completed pass. It is starting to get that bad.

A great quarterback can be a game changer. Look at Indianapolis this season. They are 0-10 without the services of Peyton Manning. No one can underestimate how important that great quarterback is, for if he were playing in full health that team would no doubt be 8-2 now. It goes without saying that Manning is that terrific; however, the Jets with Sanchez are 5-5, and at this point it would be hard for us to say they would be doing much worse without him.

Yes, the Jets' offensive line has been taking a lot of blame for this Sanchez meltdown, but most Jets fans should see the truth by now. Sanchez is no great quarterback and struggles to be even moderately good. Ryan always gives him support and that is all well and good, but when does the coach finally face the fact that Sanchez still doesn't seem to have his head in the game? Maybe when he is sitting home watching the playoffs.

The great Ryan defense, the supposedly unstoppable express train to the Super Bowl, has been derailing this season. Ryan's offense is not much better, and the truth is that this train is probably not making it into the station. So for all Rex's promises and all his bluster, we face the reality of what will probably end as an 8-8 (or worse?) season.

If this happens again, Jets fans are going to be grumbling all the way through the playoffs. We then have to face the facts and perhaps Ryan will too: maybe Mark Sanchez never becomes the next Joe Namath, and then we have to start thinking about who is QB in 2012? Chances are that the Colts will not sign Manning and he will be a free agent? If Woody Johnson's deep pockets can pull out thirty or so million dollars, the Jets may indeed have a great quarterback again, a game changer, who could finally lead them past the Patriots to take the division. Wouldn't that be a great way to get the Ryan Express back on track?

Photo Credits: Ryan & Sanchez - Daily News; Peyton Manning - ESPN.com

Sports Legend Lost - Cartoonist Bill Gallo Passes Away at 88

Growing up in New York City, it was hard to be a sports fan and not be influenced by the work of NY Daily News sports cartoonist Bill Gallo. His work had a way of touching the hearts and minds of sports fans. This combination of visceral imagery and timely topics were a treat for sports fans on a daily basis, and Gallo also gave credit to them to connect with his subjects on an emotional and intellectual level. Of course, Gallo possessed great humor, and that is no doubt the aspect of his work that will be remembered as fondly as the man himself.

Bill had the talent for capturing the essence of a great sports moment. We always hear that pictures say one thousand words; if that is the case, Gallo's drawings spoke ten times that. He could take something so astounding - like Joe Frazier beating Muhammad Ali - and sum it up with an amazing image, in this case of the constantly boasting Ali with his mouth zippered shut. This was the kind of work he did - connecting with what the sports fan was feeling and going beyond for a catharsis as well.

Over the years there were so many great images, but as a Mets fan I am very partial to Basement Bertha. Though Gallo covered all sports teams for the paper with his drawings, the ones of the slightly strange, overweight, and unattractive Bertha - as representative of all the suffering Mets fans - struck a chord with the public. With Bertha we Mets fans suffered, but we never suffered alone.

There are so many amazing Gallo cartoons, but he was also known for writing his column. I would always look forward to read what he had to say about sports legends, and his tenure at the News enabled him to encounter many of the greats. It goes without saying that Gallo was universally loved by all, even those who were depicted in his drawings in sometimes less than flattering ways. George Steinbrenner - drawn as the grunting, angry, irascible General von Steingrabber - got the joke and was honored to be in those cartoons.

Bill Gallo also wrote beautifully about his experiences during World War II. He sometimes included images of a GI in his cartoons, and my Dad (as a WWII vet) always felt an affinity for Gallo, thinking that he displayed the same pluck and heroism in the newspaper each day as he had done on the battlefield in Iwo Jima.

When a great sports broadcaster - like Howard Cosell - passes away, it is usually said that he was "silenced" in death. In this case we can say that a great sports cartoonist's hand has been stopped, and the emptiness of those pages in the NY Daily News, ones that will never be graced with another Gallo masterpiece, will speak louder than words.

A World War II Vet's Take on What Happened to Osama Bin Laden

Article first published as A World War II Vet's Take on What Happened to Osama Bin Laden on Blogcritics.

My father is a World War Two veteran. He is in a wheelchair now, courtesy of a stroke and nothing to do with the war. He is very sharp and watches the news, Dancing with the Stars, and even iCarly (which pleases my daughter very much). Being an astute observer of things comes naturally to him, so of course he would have something to say about the death of Osama Bin Laden. As always, he says what he thinks and it makes a great deal of sense to me.

During the war Dad disarmed bombs. It was not a job most people wanted to do. Not only did he want to do it, but he was damned good at it. His success rate was astounding, but he had a few "accidents" along the way (causing him to lose the hearing in one ear in the worst miscue). I couldn't get him to watch Hurt Locker, and maybe it's better that way. It might have been too close to home for him.


Anyway, he says that the guys (his buddies during the war) all talked about getting Hitler. I guess it makes sense that the top bad guy is the one with the target on his nose. Dad (and probably every other GI) dreamt of cornering the mustachioed tyrant in a room with a .45, but instead of blowing him away, my father said he would have tied him up. What would be better than dragging his butt through the streets of New York to jail? Probably not an actually possible scenario, but a pretty cool daydream anyway.

So this Bin Laden thing got Dad wondering. Why did they have to blow the guy away? Maybe there is more to the story. Maybe we will never know. I kind of liked Dad's daydream and would apply it here; nothing would have made me happier than to see Bin Laden dragged to Ground Zero and put in a glass cage. He could have stood trial in New York (we New Yorkers would make sure he got as fair a shake as possible, right?).

My daughter even had a better idea. Why not lock him in a room and make him watch episodes of Barney all day: like twenty-three hours a day of "I love you; you love me." Perhaps the off hour he could watch "Elmo's World" from Sesame Street - all day everyday - for the rest of his life. Never anything else, except maybe once as a special treat, the warden could pump in a recording of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" for a twenty-four hour period. Forget water boarding; this would have been ideal.

Alas, we will never know. I have heard Hitler liked watching King Kong and identified with the big ape. Similarly, I am sure that Bin Laden could have eventually seen himself as a purple dinosaur. He would want to give everyone hugs and invite them over to his house. Unfortunately, there would be no visitors to his cell, but someone could have given him a Baby Bop doll to make his days complete.

We'll never know what could have been, but now "he sleeps with the fishes" like right out of a good old American movie. I just hope he's not disappointed when he gets to the other side, sees the 72 virgins, and finds out there is no Viagra over there. I guess that's what hell is all about anyway.

Photo Credits:
Hitler - topnews.in
Barney - pbskids.org

A Kiss is Still a Kiss: Remembering the Iconic Times Square Photograph

Article first published as A Kiss is Still a Kiss: Remembering the Iconic Times Square Photograph on Blogcritics.

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh;
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.
-Louis Armstrong's "As Time Goes By"

What is it about a kiss that makes it magical? In the case of one sailor and a nurse, it is the essence of romance itself: two strangers literally passing on the street, caught up in the celebration of V-J Day, which marked the end of World War II, briefly embraced and kissed. Who knows how many people were kissing all over America at that moment, in sort of a midnight on New Year's Eve kind of rapture.

I have always been enamored with the nurse in the photograph. Though her face is not visible, we see her shapely legs, one bent in the crush of the kiss, her left arm slightly bent as she is no doubt surprised but not shaken or upset. The sailor's hair is dark under his white cap; he cuts a dashing figure that could obviously sweep a girl off her feet. We can't see his face either, but it is obvious that both must have been glowing when they saw each other, inspiring the man to take a chance, and for the woman to acquiesce so willingly.

The sailor didn't just kiss the nurse either: he took her in his arms, leaned her back, and smooched her like it was the first and last kiss they would ever share, and sadly, it was. This encounter would be long forgotten now, but it was captured for eternity by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine. In literally a shot heard - and seen - around the world, the nurse and sailor became a symbol not just of the end of war but of the greatness that was the New York City of that time.

In Times Square in New York City, hundreds of people gathered on August 14, 2010, to mark the 65th anniversary of that iconic kiss. People old and young made a glorious effort to mimic the pair (represented in a statue that stands in the square), but alas, no matter how hard they tried, the clear winners are still the sailor and the nurse in the original photograph.

The nurse, Edith Shain, passed away in June at 91 years of age. She came forward to identify herself as the girl in the photo years ago; the sailor's identity remains a mystery. Perhaps, somewhere in New York he sits in an apartment, watching TV and remembering the girl who got away. Maybe he puts on his old white Navy hat, a tear shimmering in the corner of his eye, wishing he had asked her for her phone number. If he has passed on, I'll bet the sailor was waiting for Edith, and they recreated their kiss to the thundering applause of all those heavenly beings gathered in the central square on the other side.

For now, we remember a kiss that wasn't just a kiss: it was a rapturous symbol of an America we used to know and love. In Times Square yesterday that kiss was honored and, in some way or other, that fleeting moment captured on film caught the effervescence of that celebration of the end of war sixty-five years ago, and now it seems an era and an innocence that, while not forgotten, will be nevermore.