C’est bon
A cool Brees, that’s what he is. New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees will soon star in an ad campaign along with fellow NFL Pro Bowlers DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys and Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers as well as President Barack Obama. The ad touts the National Football League’s “PLAY 60” campaign, which encourages children to live active lifestyles that include 60 minutes of play each day. It was shot on the White House Lawn and will run first as a 90-second public service announcement; the ad will run for the remainder of the NFL season in a shortened format. Brees tells the New Orleans Times-Picayune the commercial took about 25 minutes to shoot and included tossing some passes to the Chicago sports fan in chief. “He was wearing his Chicago Bears jacket,” Brees says, “so there was some ribbing about that.”
Pas bon
Let’s hope he manages his finances better than he manages the clock. LSU head coach Les Miles solidified a sour spot in Tiger lore with what could be called The Ole Miscalculation. Trailing by two with the ball at the Ole Miss 32 yard line with 1:04 to play, The Mad Hatter’s Tigers had an incomplete pass, took a sack and completed a pass for a loss, then inexplicably let 17 seconds run off the clock before calling their final timeout. By the time quarterback Jordan Jefferson completed a desperation 4th down pass to the Rebel 5 yard line, nine seconds remained. The clock stopped for the first down, the refs reset the ball, the clock resumed, and as time expired Jefferson spiked the ball into the turf — a move designed to stop the clock, provided there’s time on the clock. There wasn’t. End of game. Ole Miss 25, LSU 23. Miles couldn’t account for why the field goal team wasn’t at the ready to kick a game winner, or why Jefferson spiked the ball, but a Baton Rouge TV station’s footage from behind the end zone proves it was Miles himself who gave Jefferson the spike signal.
Couillon
Can we not open a newspaper these days without reading about another Ponzi scheme? As if the Stanford debacle’s estimated $1 billion impact on Lafayette and Baton Rouge were not enough, now there’s a 60-year-old Ponchatoula man accused of stealing his friends’ and relatives’ investments so he could pay $148,288 to Krewe of Zeus (he was supposed to be king next year), $133,811 to Krewe of Excalibur, $20,905 on jewelry (hey, his wife was Ms. Louisiana Senior America 2008), $11,840 on cosmetic dentistry (presumably for Ms. America), $26,703 for cover photos for the Northshore’s Sophisticated Woman magazine (paying to be on a magazine cover?). When he was arrested last week by the AG’s office and sheriff’s deputies, William J. Chaucer Jr. was gathering personal items from his 5,900-square-foot home, valued at $795,000, The Advocate reported. Chaucer is accused of bilking 200 investors out of $11 million.