Duff McKagan's ESPN Sports Column

[FunkyMonkey]

Why is that guy writing for ESPN?

By Duff McKagan
Special to ESPN.com

January 5, 2011

My name is Duff McKagan, and I play rock and roll music. The beer on "The Simpsons" show was named after me, and not the other way around. (I suppose it is a testament to how much alcohol I used to drink. Yeah, not too sexy really.) A couple of years ago, I was offered a weekly column for Playboy.com and Seattle Weekly after goofing around in several other publications with an article "here" and an article "there"; it is now supposed that I am a writer to some degree.

I have two bands at the moment: Velvet Revolver and Loaded. Some of you may remember me from Guns N' Roses. I wish I remembered more from then ?. Ha!

I have played my music in most of our major league sports' venues (football stadiums, basketball and hockey arenas). As a result, I was able to get all of the "behind the scenes" vistas of these venues that most of us only wonder about. Pretty kick-ass. A whole lot of sports teams use my old band's song "Welcome To The Jungle" as their war cry. This fact alone could have probably sated some of you sports fans' "Why him?" inquiry. Honestly though, I am a huge sports fan myself, and am glad and honored to be given a bit of a pulpit here to voice some of my opinions and insights.

Let me just fill you all in on some other "Duff facts":

No. 1: I, like perhaps many of you readers, played little league sports. I was that three-sport guy; football, basketball and baseball. I had dreams then, of going all of the way as a major league pitcher.

No. 2: I never made it as a pitcher.

No. 3: I made it as a bass player in a rock band.

No. 4: Team sports helped me in all of my later dealings within a rock "group."

No. 5: I went to college finally after my stint in GNR. My dreams of being a pitcher again were suddenly reborn. My ill-informed daydreams told me that I could make it onto the Seattle University Red Hawk squad as a cagey 33-year-old rookie. Here's the deal, though: I hadn't really pitched in anger since I was 16 or so. My college baseball career floundered even before it began ? to the snickers and jeers of all of my "rock friend" peers.

No. 6: I don't want Brett Favre to retire because that old man makes this old man think I could still make a pro team somewhere. Yep, I'm a real moron.

No. 7: I am a Seattle native and a real homer when it comes to my favorite sports teams. The jokes can start now ?

No. 8: I have soured to the NBA ever since my team was stolen from me. The NBA is now dead to me. Unless, of course, we steal someone else's team; then it is game on. (I shall write about this soon.)

No. 9: I don't like large-market sports teams that can acquire any player that they want (see No. 7). I will write on this too.

No. 10: I have two daughters -- aged 10 and 13. I love nothing more than the fact that I am the father of girls, but watching sports on TV and listening to "The Jim Rome Show" on the radio are moments that I must do alone. (With my trusty dog Buckley. He had his testicles removed, and I was the one who took him to get this procedure done. I will eternally feel guilty for this. Even after all of that, he will still watch baseball with me.)

No. 11: My wife may very well be hotter than yours (see No. 3).

No. 12: I cannot use most swear words in this column, as ESPN is owned by Disney. I will have to therefore use some of my book-learnin' to find apt non-swear words where I would usually use the F-word or some similar phrase of discontent.

P.S. I wrote this column last week. Being a Seahawks fan, as stated above, you would have maybe thought that I might have said something about the team playing for a playoff berth against the St. Louis Rams. Truthfully? It didn't even cross my mind to write about this, as we Seattleites didn't even think they stood a chance against Sam Bradford.

But something happened on Sunday night; our defense held and quarterback Charlie Whitehurst showed up to play some football. My 7-9 Seahawks have home-field advantage now against Drew Brees and the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. What the ??

Whatever. I have found myself today, suddenly wearing my dusty Seahawks jersey ? a shirt I have not worn for a few years now. Yeah, I am that guy. The hopeless sports fan -- wearing the fan gear, thinking now, that against all odds, my team might now have a chance. Whitehurst to Williams? It kinda has a ring to it ? like Zorn to Largent ? except different.

Musician Duff McKagan, who writes for Seattle Weekly, has written for Playboy.com and is finishing his autobiography, will write a weekly sports column for ESPN.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=5988617

[FunkyMonkey]

Duff's first column has been posted -- I've put it in the first post.

[Naupis]

Weird seeing Duff in a Jersey like that. His wife however pulls off the look just fine

[FunkyMonkey]

Duff McKagan Has Been Drafted By ESPN.com

By Chris Kornelis, Wed., Jan. 5 2011

​Our friend and columnist Duff McKagan started a new chapter (doh!) in his "journalism" career today, penning the first of what will be many columns for ESPN.com. Those who keep up with McKagan's column know he's a ravenous sports fan particularly devoted to the Seahawks.
In his first column, Duff explains that "I, like perhaps many of you readers, played little league sports. I was that three-sport guy; football, basketball and baseball." To wit, McKagan is going to remain a two-column guy, holding down his Reverb column on Thursdays and his ESPN column on Wednesdays. For the time being, he's going to hold back on his regular Q&As as he gets comfortable in his new gig.

Congrats, Duff. We'll all be reading.

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2011/01/reverbs_duff_mckagan_has_been.php

[FunkyMonkey]

January 12, 2011

How can't you love the Seahawks now?

By Duff McKagan
Special to ESPN.com

I am from Seattle. Born and raised. My career took me away from home when I was barely out of my teens, and to this day my career keeps me from home way more than I like. The one constant I have that keeps me in touch with Seattle and "home," though, are my sports teams. I've always been a huge, loyal fan of all sports Northwest. Sports, for me, are not then a thing about stats or fantasy "insider" takes. My teams mean more about a sense of being from somewhere.

I do know that this ESPN gig is a national thing -- and I also know that some of you mused out loud about me having too much of a Seattle slant from week to week. Well, I'm not sure about next week ? but for this one, yes, my column will definitely be about a Seattle team. At least someone will be writing about the The Hawks.

I get it. We are not a big market and we are tucked all of the way up here in the Pacific Northwest, where we are perceived to be still chopping down trees and living in tepees or igloos or whatever ? and we are all hippies playing hacky sack, listening to Phish or some such jam-band. Or we still listen purely just to grunge music and/or Heart.

But this medium-market team just took down the defending Super Bowl champions, and now suddenly ? this fish-throwing, coffee-drinking town has got a new face and attitude, perhaps best personified by Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch's forearm-shiver delivered to the Saints defense on Saturday. I guess the Hawks just had nothing to lose; they certainly played like it.

Almost nobody in the media gave the Seahawks much of a chance before Saturday and the aftermath of the upset must have left many of them as stunned as the Saints defenders whom Lynch ran over. One of my favorite Sunday morning NFL shows didn't even get to Seattle's upset until late in the program, after the requisite Sunday game previews, New York Jets victory coverage and other feature stories.

Being 7-9 and winning the NFC West championship isn't the ultimate way to reach the playoffs ? I get that; but the story itself is still worthy of a bit more coverage, no? And were the New Orleans Saints not just winners of the Super Bowl. Ah, yes ? right! They too are not a major-market team, and therefore not perhaps worthy of the national coverage that other teams would have surely gotten if the same circumstances befell them. I am, for sure, used to it by now.

You see, I am not a journalist or a sportswriter, so my news judgment likely does not match those of my new colleagues. No, I am just simply a fan who perhaps speaks the mind of a lot of us. Those Milwaukee Bucks fans who think their team gets no national respect ? or those fans in Denver ? or Cleveland ? or Orlando ? or Portland ? or San Diego, and so on. I get you.

If you like your freedom, your Internets, espresso and good rock and roll, well then you should also be a Seahawks fan. Here is why: During World War II, Seattle's own Boeing airplane plant pumped out all of those B-24s, B-25s, and B-29s that helped to win that war. In the 1940s, Jimi Hendrix was born in this great city; his vanguard lead guitar playing eventually influenced so many great rock bands that it is almost impossible to register it all. Lead guitar solos may have very well been set back many years without his genius. In the '70s, Starbucks opened a little shop in the Pike Place Market that eventually informed our whole nation that coffee is dark black and not almost clear -- not to mention, from a can, weak or brownish. In the 1970s, Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft; without which, a home computer would still be the size of, well, a home. The globalization of modern ideas and instantaneous sharing of information could have been a thing that we might still be waiting for. Just think, no ESPN.com or NFL.com ? or, God forbid, no Twitter!

Yes, being a Seahawks fan should also be thought of as being a plain, old good American. Even if the Hawks don't get as much national attention as I think they deserve, we are nation-builders (what?). I digress.

Saturday's game really didn't start off much different than most if you are a Seahawks fan; quarterback Matt Hasselbeck threw an interception on the first possession, and they were down 10-0 before anyone could blink their eyes from pure boredom. Yeah, the same ol', same ol' that we SeaChicken fans have seen for these past few seasons. The day before the game, a friend of mine offered to bet $100 that my Seattle team couldn't win. I am a loyal fan, but not a fool -- I didn't take the bet. Three seasons before this one, I would have taken the bet ? and any season before that, too. Of course I feel like a damn fool now for not taking my friend's offer.

I read a story this week that Seattle's "12th man" may have actually caused a small earthquake when Marshawn Lynch shook off eight New Orleans defenders in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Apparently, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network recorded a small tremor around Qwest Field at about the same time as Lynch's 67-yard touchdown run.

A few readers chastised me pretty good for a comment I made about "suddenly wearing my dusty Seahawks jersey" last week after we made it into the playoffs. The truth is though -- I am such a sports fan that if I am bummed out about how the coaching staff or players or front office people are running things -- I will not just sit idly by and root for my team and wear the colors for the true-fan-ness of it all. I have done it in the past and have felt like a moron as, say, my favorite player gets traded or backroom dealings are being done to create space for next season ? again!

Have you ever been a fan of a rock band that had a killer first and second record, and then somehow lost you after that? Did you still wear the Styx concert T-shirt after they went into the whole "Mr. Roboto" thing? You may still love the band somewhere deep down inside, but you reserve the right to be pissed-off about what is currently happening. Are you any less of a fan then?

But back to my Seahawks -- if nothing else comes of this game other than the fact that our beloved quarterback, Hasselbeck, finally got his groove back -- well then that is enough for me right now. Sports definitely is about winning, and not how one loses; but Matt has given our city one hell of a ride and gotten us to a place that we can perhaps build a winning team again. The 12th Man is alive and well again (not that it was ever in question), and really, I could give a rat's ass about how much national coverage we get. I am so used to it. Go HAWKS!

P.S.: In being the true Seattleite that I am, I drank an entire pot of very strong coffee before I set upon writing this column. The clues may be evident everywhere. There is much too much bad stuff going on outside in our world. Time to have a little fun.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6006322

[FunkyMonkey]

January 19, 2011

Confidence can be an infectious riff

By Duff McKagan
Special to ESPN.com

The word "confidence" may very well get bandied around too much when it comes to everyday life. It's not something that I think should be taken lightly if you think about the larger impact of what confidence will help bring you in life. If you take just one guy, things such as playing NFL football, writing songs or creating a relationship with your workmates all stand better when a good dose of confidence is parlayed into something better for all.

With any rock band that I have been with, it has been my experience that a good dose of confidence in one guy can and will in fact make the whole group better. If one guy starts to excel on his particular instrument, everyone wins. When Guns N' Roses started, Slash was already a particularly gifted shredder on guitar. Where his gift may have seemingly only benefited him, it actually made Izzy Stradlin and me much more adept at our given crafts. Where Slash's initial confidence in his instrument was great, it parlayed into all of us one day feeling completely in sync and bullet-proof [no pun intended].

At the beginning of this football season, it just didn't appear that Jay Cutler had much of anything going for him. Cutler was a guy who threw more picks than Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen [that is a dumb rock reference joke]. When your offensive line cannot protect you, all sorts of things can and will go wrong. A quarterback's sense of well-being can get turned upside-down; a team's season can very well follow in quick succession.

But somewhere around Week 8, after having a bye week to dwell on Cutler's four interceptions to Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall, the Bears' offensive line started to protect their headstrong and strong-armed quarterback. Cutler was given the chance to perform without as much fear as before. By Week 10, the dude had so much going for him that he was suddenly charging headlong into the opposing team's defense. That is impactful confidence.

The Bears' defense seemed to somehow pick up on Cutler's confidence, and turned it in its favor on the other side of the ball with unbridled aggression. I guess that when you are satisfied as a defense that the whole game doesn't rest on your shoulders, you can just plain ol' go out and hurt people. The Bears did that Sunday [much to my dismay; as I am a Seahawks guy through and through]. I can appreciate a good team, though, and the Bears seem now to have a ton going for them on both sides of the ball.

Confidence, too, has come to the Los Angeles Clippers as of late. They have suddenly become a very dangerous team and are no longer one that the others look forward to playing for an easy "W." Rookie Blake Griffin has a silent and upward mobility to his style of play that has instilled a new fight to what was the joke of the NBA. With Byron Davis bringing cageyness, I suddenly like this team. Hey, anyone who beats the Lakers is good for me [old Sonics rival ? that is another story to which I will get to one of these weeks].

Confidence is something that is earned, whereas simple bravado can be done without one iota of worksmanship. The New York Jets had a ton of bravado this season, without the backup of a dominant season. A win like the one the other day against the New England Patriots, however, will instill in a team a sense of confidence that actually wins games when it matters most.

Don't get me wrong, I like a good bit of braggadacio when it is meant to get a laugh as well -- and I do like the Jets -- but "smack" talk without backup gets a bit trying in my opinion. The Jets now have some tonnage to go along with the bluster. Like a steel-toed, well-heeled and polished boot. [Sorry, Rex, I couldn't help myself. Patriots receiver Wes Welker actually gets the "props" for best interview last week.]

By writing about only the Bears and Jets this week, do I mean to pick either of them to win the Super Bowl? I like the Pittsburgh Steelers' sense of weight I suppose. [Don't get me wrong, Hawks fans, I won't be getting a Terrible Towel anytime soon.] And sitting there quietly are the Green Bay Packers and their confident quarterback Aaron Rodgers ? probably liking their own chances.

What's your pick for the Super Bowl? If your team is already out, do you have a "default" team? For me, I hate the fact I usually don't have "skin in the game" at this juncture in the season, and so I find something to like about another city's team. Steelers? No ? they beat my Hawks in the brutal "ref-game" Super Bowl a few years back. Green Bay? Maybe ? a little boring though. Bears? No, they just beat up on my team. The Jets? Hmmm ? maybe. I love that city when I visit.

Let's see how this sits with me for a day or two.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6034696

[FunkyMonkey]

January 26, 2011, 1:23 PM ET

From the couch, it's easy to knock Cutler

By Duff McKagan
Special to ESPN.com

I didn't have "skin" in either game Sunday, as I am a Seattle Seahawks fan. But I am also an NFL fan, and in saying that I always look forward to the NFC and AFC championship games as the culmination of a whole lot of games watched from my couch or wherever else; I wouldn't miss these games.

I'm in Los Angeles at the moment, and being down here and being a football fan is kind of like what you see in those DirecTV commercials: Fans of different teams, congregating in one house to watch football. I was invited to a friend's house for the second game. He is a lifetime New York Jets fan. Two other friends (a San Diego Chargers fan and a Dallas Cowboys fan) and I were meeting at my house to ride our Harleys out for the game.

Oftentimes, these games are much better to watch and more hotly contested affairs than the actual Super Bowl. These games are the last actual test of blood and guts. The rule of "any given Sunday" sort of gives way to these last four teams being the best of the best. There are fewer moments of chance because every player is giving everything they have. This was the weekend to go big or go the hell home.

It is cold, in Southern California terms, right now. When I ride my motorcycle in Seattle in wintertime, I just simply have the right warm clothes on hand. ? At a moment's notice, I can leave my house and have the right attire. Down here in L.A., though, it would be overdoing it to have winter gloves, thermal underwear, balaclavas and huge coats at the ready. Luckily for me, though, I have been climbing high and snowy mountains down here and have all of that stuff. The point is, during the Bears-Packers game, I was sort of going from one room to another putting my motorcycle riding attire together; checking in on the game every time I passed through the TV room (which was a bunch of times, about every 30 seconds or so).

I guess it was because of all of this to and fro that I didn't notice until a little ways into the third quarter that Jay Cutler wasn't behind center for the Chicago Bears. I then sat and watched, wanting to get the story of why the Bears quarterback wasn't playing. The commentators never really filled me in. It was a mystery to me. To say I was shocked would be overstating it -- but I was mystified. I thought I must have missed something.

Continue here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6058730

[FunkyMonkey]

February 2, 2011

Split allegiance puzzles an old pal

By Duff McKagan
Special to ESPN.com

Author's note: Parts of this story have been fictionalized to either protect the innocent, or create an air of humor or mystique. Please be advised to "lighten up" a small bit.

The Super Bowl for me, since childhood, has really been only an event that seemed somewhat distant and folklorish. My team, the Seattle Seahawks, since the expansion in 1976, had never even gotten anywhere close to the championship game.

But then the season of 2005 happened -- the one where everything went exactly right and in our favor. We were going to the damn Super Bowl at long last, and I was completely immersed in the fervor, of course.

My fellow Seattleite buddy living in Los Angeles that year was Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell. If you know anything about Jerry, then you will also know that he is a huge NFL fan, and heads an ESPN.com fantasy football league that benefits charity. During that 2005 season, Jerry and I were in tandem with our measured optimism as the season progressed. When the playoffs and ultimately Super Bowl XL became a reality early in the new year, we were probably the first guys on the phone and computer, looking for good tickets to that game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Through a connection I had through Velvet Revolver, I found four first-row seats at the 40-yard line ? for only the face value of the tickets. We were in! This was going to be a kick-ass trip. My wife, Susan, was coming [hotel time away from kids with your wife is always good ? but that is another story], my best friend, Eddy, from Seattle would meet us there in Detroit, and Jerry would fly out of LAX with me and Susan.

I got my Hawks jersey. I got my long-sleeved Hawks T-shirt. I even wore my dumb-looking Hawks baseball hat. Time to go to the airport; Jerry was going to meet us down there at our terminal. Right on. This is it! TIME FOR THE SHOW!

As Susan and I walk to our departing gate, I have a watchful eye out for Cantrell. I catch sight of a leather jacket with Jerry's telltale long hair protruding from a baseball hat.

"Hey, pal," I say.

As he turns, I feel good about the fact he is wearing his Seahawks hat on the flight. I didn't want to be the one nerd, alone on that flight with a football hat on. But as Jerry came closer, I noticed he had on black gloves. It is odd to ever wear gloves in L.A., so I took notice. As he got closer still, I could clearly see they were Steelers gloves.

"Yeah, that's funny, dude ? ha-ha. Whatever, man. Take that s--- off though, dude ? the joke's over, Jerry," I said.

I had thought, of course, that he was playing some sort of prank on me. Right? How could I really think anything else. I knew Jerry to be a Seahawks fan of the highest order, and his band even hoisted the 12th man flag at Qwest Field that season.

But it wasn't a joke. As he spoke, the dark picture of his colliding fandom started to take shape. Here is the deal.

Jerry grew up in Oklahoma, where everyone around him was a Dallas Cowboys fan. Being the dude he is, Jerry decided to pull for the Cowboys' archenemy of the '70s, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

His family then moved to Tacoma, Wash., about the same time as Seattle got its expansion NFL team. From day one, he was a Seahawks fan ? as well as a Steelers fan. What I didn't know the whole past 15 or 16 years of us knowing each other was that Jerry had been secretly dreading the day if and when the Seahawks and the Steelers had to play each other in the Super Bowl. Ever since 1976, the dude had been silently gripping. So here we were.

To be honest, I was kind of pissed off. How can a guy pull for both damn teams at the Super Bowl? And, I had scored these tickets for us. With maybe a bit more seriousness than the occasion called for, Jerry explained it to me this way:

"If you love your dad, it doesn't mean you love your mom any less, right?" he said.

All right, if you put it that way.

During the game, Jerry seemed to pull for the Hawks a bit more than the Steelers. I think probably because we Seattle fans were so damn outnumbered, he felt a duty to do it. I think it was also because he was sitting with Susan, Eddy and me.

But I could see a certain pain and confusion in his demeanor, which was an all-new experience if you know Jerry and NFL football. He is usually out of his chair and screaming and carrying on like the rest of us ? probably more so.

As the game came to a close, and the reality that the Seahawks would not be victorious sank in, Jerry came over to me and said that he was sorry and something about "there is always next year" ? I didn't want to hear it then, and there has been no "next year" to date.

After the game, Jerry took off his hat. "The gloves won," he said.

Good luck with your "gloves" this Sunday, pal.

Musician Duff McKagan, who writes for Seattle Weekly, has written for Playboy.com and is finishing his autobiography, writes a weekly sports column for ESPN.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6080341

[FunkyMonkey]

Chat With Duff
Rock star and The Life columnist Duff McKagan will stop by SportsNation at 3 p.m. ET, Wednesday to take your questions in a live chat. So send him your sports and music questions and check back for his answers.
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/36846/rocker-blogger-duff-mckagan

February 9, 2011

Life at the speed of sports

Jan. 8 and 9 was "Wildcard Weekend" in the NFL. The Jets beat the Colts. Packers over Eagles. Seahawks bested the Saints, etc.

On Jan. 10, Auburn beat Oregon 22-19 in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game.

Jan. 1 marked the beginning of 2011. Do you remember where you were on New Year's Eve?

The movie "The Fighter," starring Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg, came out Dec. 19. In my opinion, the best movie of the season, and the best sports movie in a long, long time ("human sports" for all of you now shouting "But what about 'Seabiscuit'?!").

Santa Claus came to the McKagan house on Dec. 25. On Christmas Eve, we all watched "A Christmas Story."

On Dec. 19, the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the New York Jets, 22-17.

Four days later, on Dec. 23, the Steelers turned it around on the hapless Carolina Panthers, 27-3.

On Jan. 3, most of our K thru 12th-grade kids went back to school this year.

On Dec. 27, a blizzard hit New York, Boston, and most of the Northeast United States, burying cities in knee-deep snow and stranding countless thousands at airports around the country. Where were you?

Jan. 25 saw Motorhead start yet another world tour, this time for "The World Is Yours." Their gig in Anaheim, Calif., was so loud that Angels fans shouldn't be surprised if they can still hear remnants of the song "Ace Of Spades" reverberating around Angel Stadium come the first week of April when baseball season starts.

On Jan. 16, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the L.A. Lakers. I never did like the Lakers -- who, do-or-die, will always be an arch-enemy to my Seattle SuperSonics. Oh yeah, that's right, they were stolen from us.

On Dec. 22 at the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl, No. 10 Boise St. beat No. 10 Utah 26-3.

Feb. 6 at his Super Bowl postgame news conference, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin showed us all what having fortitude and balls is by stating that his team just simply got outplayed. No excuses. No B.S.

Jan. 19 brought us the return of NBC's "The Office." Oh, yeah!

On Feb 5, Desmond Howard "tweets that Phil Simms threatened him at some Super Bowl week pre-function after a spat over Howard's criticism about Simms' son as a college QB. Now, while I find this all intriguing, whatever happened to some good ol' fisticuffs in the back alley? Ah, the "Information Age" has had its "weenie effect" on even the toughest of us all, I guess ?

Feb. 7 is when we all start the "pitchers and catchers report to spring training" talk on AM sports radio.

On Dec. 18, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 11,491.91. To this date, the DJIA has gone up roughly 706 points, to 12,197.00.

At 11 p.m. PT, Jan. 4, my first ESPN.com column appears. In that introductory piece, I state clearly that I am not a sportswriter.

At 11:05 p.m. PT, Jan. 4, a comment appears to my column from an anonymous and obviously miffed poster, asking why I am writing for ESPN, "he is not even a sportswriter!"

On Jan. 17, Ricky Gervais serves as host for the Golden Globe Awards show. He raises quite the ruckus whilst offending pretty much everyone in the room. Here is an example: "I hired him to star in a remake of a show I starred in, which he's now leaving, killing a cash cow for both of us. Please welcome Tina Fey and the ungrateful Steve Carell!"

On Jan. 4, Apple announced that the iPhone 4 will be available through Verizon; the people go crazy!

Jan. 17, Brett Favre files retirement paperwork with the league office of the NFL.

On Dec. 31, the Rex Ryan foot-fetish scandal takes root.

Why am I bringing up all of these random dates? I am just trying to bring some scope to how bad it has been for the Cleveland Cavaliers this season. All of the above-mentioned things have happened since ?

Dec. 18, 2010. The last time that the Cleveland Cavaliers won a game, beating the Knicks 109-102.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6102209

[FunkyMonkey]

February 16, 2011, 9:01 AM ET

Following a hero up mountains

By Duff McKagan
Special to ESPN.com

In 1997, Jon Krakauer's book "Into Thin Air" sparked a fervor that drove me to read just about everything there was to read about cold and scary-ass high places.

Living in Seattle is also to live with the daily shadow of 14,441-foot Mount Rainier almost blocking out the rest of the civilized world. As I was fast becoming the "armchair" climber in my dumb fantasy world of climbing books, it became apparent that if I wanted to experience any sort of actual high-altitude stuff myself ? well, then, Mount Rainier would have to at least be an initial goal.

High-altitude mountaineering may not be the most typical subject to read about here at ESPN.com. This time of the year is tough if you're a Sonics fan like me. The NBA has become a non-healing wound; like seeing that girlfriend who left you ? constantly flashed across the ESPN TV screen. But of course, that is another story ? and a dark one.

I seem to look for identifiable heroes in the sports that I follow. The good ones take a piece of each one of us on their journeys.

In 2007, The Discovery Channel started its first season of "Everest: Beyond The Limit," a TV series following the real-life attempt of an 11-member team to summit Mount Everest. Being a mountain-climbing enthusiast, I naturally watched the show (I hadn't climbed anything yet).

The person I could most identify with on the show was a guy named Tim Medvetz, a Harley-riding, tattooed misfit who had been through a bit of hell before Everest was even in his plans at all.

Here is a quick list to encapsulate his adult life:

1. At 20, Tim flies to Brazil from his native New York.

2. Lives in a Rio slum.

3. Learns Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

4. Does a little time in a Brazilian jail.

5. Comes back to New York and works as a bouncer at rowdy nightclubs.

6. Comes to Los Angeles.

7. Joins the Hell's Angels.

8. Gets into a real bad motorcycle accident.

9. Wakes up in a hospital room on Sept. 11, 2001.

10. In a haze of confusion about his newly broken body, the two images he sees are his dangling right foot and the North Tower coming down on television.

11. A surgeon says Tim will lose his foot.

12. Tim says to surgeon "I lose my foot, you lose your foot" (see No. 7 again).

13. Doctor tells Tim that his lower spine and right ankle will each be permanently fused. Says Tim will basically be an invalid.

14. Tim reads "Into Thin Air" in his hospital bed.

15. Tim decides to climb Mount Everest.

16. Tim goes to Thailand to study Muay Thai kickboxing and get his fitness back. He stays in a martial arts camp and scrapes by financially.

17. Tim goes to a Tibetan monastery to live, and climbs nearby mountains.

18. Tim climbs Mount Everest.

19. Tim meets me and at a fancy Hollywood party (well, of course, right?).

20. His life has become a never-ending game of "dodge the goofball" ever since No. 19.

21. Tim sees a need for more of a safety net for disabled U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

22. Tim knows what it's like to be in a hospital bed and dealing with a life-changing prognosis.

23. Tim starts The Heroes Project, a nonprofit that aims to get wounded veterans up the highest summits on each continent.

24. He has gotten a different U.S. veteran up three so far; Denali (North America), Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa) and Mount Elbrus (Europe).

25. Bad-ass.

26. Period.

Tim has now become a member of an elite club: the few who have climbed Everest. Since then, he has climbed many more big mountains all around the world.

And yes, we really did become friends, and pretty good ones at that. Good enough friends that I felt comfortable asking Tim if I could start coming along on some of his training climbs in California (Angeles Crest, Baldy, Alta Peak). He is helping me learn the ropes up there on those slippery and steep ledges.

Tim is the tortoise and I am the hare going up those arduous inclines. Tim always says I am in too big of a rush. I tell him to hurry up ? I've got places to go and people to see. Tim only trudges forward, and at his own pace.

He seems to know stuff about things I do not up there. I just want to get to the summit. Those crampons are a pain in the butt, and my pack has too much crap in it. It starts to slow me down. Tim catches up, and tells me again that I am in too much of a damn rush. He pushes my pack, and I skid back down the mountain about 150 yards. "Who's in the lead now?" he laughs. That forces me to slow down, I guess.

It was when we finally got to the summit of 11,400-foot Alta Peak that I realized the full scope of Tim's tenacious immersion in his sport and how he has translated it all into the avenue of helping our wounded vets. It's not about a trip from A to B with Tim; it is all of the stuff in between.

Tim is a high-altitude athlete of the highest order. He trains as hard -- and probably harder -- than most pro athletes out there. But for me, as a fan of sports, he is the guy I want to most emulate. His values, as far as walking it likes he talks it, are ridiculous.

While many may pay lip service to a cause like "supporting our troops," Tim has gone the extra mile and actually taken action. I'm not trying to pimp my own band here -- my editor asked me to include this part -- but Tim's story did inspire Loaded's new song "Fight On." The proceeds from the iTunes download go to the VA Puget Sound Hospital. We played the song at halftime of a Seattle Seahawks game last season on Veterans Appreciation Day. All of this because of my pal, Tim Medvetz.

If you get a second today, check out Tim's site -- theheroesproject.org.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6124608

[FunkyMonkey]

A couple more:

Duff McKagan: Following a hero takes me up mountains

February 19, 2011

http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=6139137

Duff McKagan: Everyone wants their share of NFL pie

February 22, 2011

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6149286

[FunkyMonkey]

Duff talks more than just sports this week:

March 2, 2011

Tackling soccer and the stone casters

A few weeks ago someone wrote on this column's comment board, asking if I could maybe write a little bit about soccer. Not being the biggest follower of the game, I would be hard-pressed to give any sort of novel stance on soccer.

The rock fans in the U.K. know a lot about their bands, and my being a big sports fan is no tiny secret over there. In every city from Dublin to Glasgow, and Liverpool to London, I have been pleaded with to outwardly root for whichever city's soccer team. And they give presents, too. As a result of this combination, I have a jersey, hat, socks or a banner from about every imaginable team in the U.K. and Ireland.

So, back to this past weekend.

On Friday night, I land in London and promptly get driven the 100 or so miles north to Birmingham. My friend Tom picks me up for the ride. I tell Tom that I now write for ESPN, and that I want to know how to get introduced into soccer ? er, football, so that I would be interested enough to write about it. OK. "Fair enough," he says.

"What you have to understand about football is, is that the game doesn't stop like American sport(s), when it's nil-nil and the pitch is frantic with some real top hard men" -- that's what she said, I thought quickly -- "the crowd is right crazed for a bust-up." What?

Well it turned out there was going to be a League Cup championship game that Sunday between Birmingham City and Arsenal (best sports name ever, by the way). The League Cup should not be confused with the FA Cup or the Premiership or all of the other cups and championships. They don't have the defined playoff brackets like we have in the NBA or NFL or March Madness. It seems a bit confusing, but that is not hard to fathom considering the author (me).

As it turns out, Tom and I were driving back to London from B'ham that Sunday, so we tuned in to the game on his car radio. One of the announcers was a Scotsman, and therefore, I couldn't make out one word he was saying. What I did glean from this game, though, was that Arsenal was the clear-cut favorite coming into the game. Birmingham City? A big underdog. As the game went to halftime, it was tied at 1.

Naturally, the England versus India cricket match came on at that point, and I learned from Tom all about the bowlers, the wickets, the points system, and ? without seeing it on a TV or live, I had no idea what he was talking about.

As our football match resumed, Birmingham City scored another goal, and ultimately upset the almighty Arsenal. I always like when an underdog wins!

I think that, ever since the U.S. team made such an exciting showing in the World Cup in South Africa, I have been looking for an introduction into soccer. I hear Seattle has a great MLS team, and I am in the U.K. and Ireland a bunch it seems.

Unfortunately for me, I just simply couldn't understand what these two announcers were really talking about -- the accents were too thick, and the crowd roared at every near goal, drowning out the sportscasters just when I was catching an audible and discernable line of thought. It was comical for me. Maybe I just need to actually go sometime. I have heard it is a sport where being there counts for a lot.

That will probably be the most soccer reporting you will get from me during my tenure here at ESPN.com. Not very good, was it?

Now, to something completely different ?

Last week, a couple of people in the comments area accused me of using "meth" and heroin (in fact, those two drugs were never my choices back when I was making those dumb decisions in the late 1980s and early '90s ? but I digress). And while these obviously intelligent posters may think things like this are funny, they are indeed a sign to us all that maybe it is our turn to take some responsibility for what we say on the Internet.

I say this, not for my own sake, nor because it might have hurt my feelings (it did not). I play rock music. Inherently, when you are in a band -- from your first teenage gig on -- you get told "you suck!" by one or another faceless voice in the crowd. And that's the same thing here with online news sites. Posters post with screen names, and often offer no e-mail address or other tangible information on themselves. They can cast stones at will, they are never put under a spotlight in which to examine their own lives' dirty deeds on a public forum.

But here we are, and it is 2011, and print newspapers are either dying out completely, or getting smaller by the day. The Internet is where we get our news these days.

In print papers, you must leave a full name and return address if you want to send a letter to the editors for print in the op-ed section or what-have-you. Dating back to the first U.S. newspapers in the 1600s, the village paper would leave a blank page in the back on which the townspeople could write their comments about certain articles. They would then pass that paper on to their neighbor, and that neighbor could see what "John Smith at 65 Squabble Lane" had to say. John Smith had balls enough to say what he said, and put his name and address on it, as if to say "If you don't like it, you know where to find me." But if nothing else, this whole practice bred responsible, brave and intelligent discourse.

This brings me back now to those anonymous casters of stones that we see now in the "comments" section of so many different Internet news ports. It is time for us to take up the slack and return to responsible and intelligent co-citizenry and civility.

Have some stones. Use your name. Or at the very least, leave us your e-mail address next time you are just going to sling mud without the least bit of forethought or knowledge of your subject.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6169317

[FunkyMonkey]

Intensely mad about March Madness

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6220339

Reinstate the passion with Bad Brains

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6247443

[FunkyMonkey]

I think I'll include the entire article for this one...

It's just a game

April 6, 2011

By Duff McKagan
Special to ESPN.com

I was driving my car in Los Angeles last Friday afternoon, idly listening to a local sports radio show. I am like everyone else on Opening Day of MLB baseball: There is all the hope in the world of my team going all of the way to the pennant ? or beyond,

Things suddenly came to a screeching halt, however, when I heard the sports guys on the radio read a story about a San Francisco Giants fan getting brutally beaten on by some men wearing Los Angeles Dodgers garb. This happened the night before, just after the Dodgers' home opener against the Giants.

Apparently, there were some words exchanged in the parking lot and this man (now identified as Santa Clara County paramedic Bryan Stow) was hit on the back of the head. Mr. Stow apparently hit his head again when he fell to the ground, and the Dodgers-wearing brutes reportedly proceeded to kick him while he was unconscious. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

On Saturday, as I was driving my young daughters to a Nickelodeon kids show, I was again idly listening to the radio, this time the local NPR station. The story of the condition of Bryan Stow came on. His condition has apparently worsened, and was now in a medically induced coma. Bryan Stow has two small children. This kind of stuff really hits home when you are also a dad.

This is not meant to be a commentary on Dodgers fans in general, or Giants fans in general. If this meaningless and brutal attack happened in Denver or Tampa Bay or Seattle, I would still feel as sickened.

I know that we are passionate about our teams. We grow up feeling ownership and pride about them. It's our "turf," when our teams play at home, and we go into "enemy territory" when we go see our teams play in another city. But ? it is only a game. Just sports. Folly.

ESPN.com is one of the biggest websites in the world. Sports are a huge deal. I could immediately tell when I started writing here back in January, just by some of the comments to my articles, that passion toward sports has a different, uh ? twist. But online, it is all pretty harmless and more than often, anonymous. I guess that's all OK.

A baseball stadium, though, is a place that we often take our children. This is a place where they may very likely get some of their first imprints of sportsmanship between us adults. I'm sure that some kids might have witnessed this event in the Dodgers' parking lot as the game was letting out. That is really damn sad to think about.

Thugs are not a new dilemma. We have all seen on TV, or read about "soccer hooligans" in Europe or elsewhere. But I have never even heard about a fight in a parking lot after a mixed martial arts match here in The States. And there's probably more testosterone combined with alcohol at an MMA event. How empty are the lives of these violent Dodgers fans that they mindlessly lose all sense of compassion for their fellow fan or man on Opening Day of the baseball season.

When I went to Super Bowl XL in Detroit and wore my Seahawks jersey, I was sitting right smack in the middle of a sea of Steelers fans. For all of the fierceness that you hear about Steelers fans, I actually never really met a nicer bunch of people. They were courteous to us Hawks fans, and understood clearly, that this was just a game.

I've gone to many different ballparks to see the Seattle Mariners when I am on tour. I always wear my M's hat and have never had a problem. Maybe it is because I am 6-foot-3 and have a lot of tattoos. Maybe it is because I have a tiny bit of celebrity.

Hopefully this Dodgers parking lot attack is just a very isolated incident. It's just not cool ? it's senseless, shameful, dumb and dark. Sinister almost.

Rivalries are healthy and vital to all sports. When it results to thugism, however, the fun and sportsmanship is lost. That goes without saying, right?

To Bryan Stow's wife and family: Here is hoping and praying that everything goes OK. You have my best wishes.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=6288739