Bob the Pirate

Valentine's Day commission of the great Roberto Clemente. Nothing says "I Love You" like a cartoonified baseball legend. I mean, if it's between this and a box of chocolates, and let's be honest, most of those chocolates are borderline ABC material anyway, I don't think it's much of a competition. Cartoonified baseball legend all day! In all seriousness, honored to play a role in helping a nice couple celebrate Valentine's Day. I will now stop talking about this, before it begins to border on creepy.

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Relatively short post this time, not a whole lot of back story with this particular pic. I could just start rambling about random stuff, but we all know that's not what this site is about. This site has structure...and integrity...and an age requirement! But it's for the best anyway, need to get my rest. Up here at the combine in Indianapolis...plan on working out with the D-lineman bright and early tomorrow morning. Probably get into some 3-cone stuff, maybe an obstacle course or two...I don't know. Just going to scribble a number in the high 70s on a form-fitting black tee and see what the day brings.

It's Blake 'N Shake, and I Helped

Blake Griffin filled his All-Star Weekend with numerous activities, such as jumping over an automobile, sticking his elbow in a rim, and walking around the city of Los Angeles with his own personal gospel choir. I happen to do those things every weekend, but this is not about me. Well...it is, actually. My blog. My picture. So I take that sentence back. And I know what you're thinking...and no this is not an actual photograph. Even though Blake routinely wears the paper Steak n' Shake hats, this is actually an illustration I did in collaboration with http://www.gotemcoach.com/.

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I'm almost ashamed of throwing random women's names in here in an attempt to get more hits...but not so much that I will stop. Keyword.....Rihanna.

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Back to the story. Got Em held a Blake Griffin nickname contest, which apparently, he is in dire need of. "Milkshake" won out, so the good dude over at the site asked me to illustrate it. Now, just to be clear, I will probably never ever use that one, just because I'm not calling another grown man "Milkshake". But that's just a personal standard thing, don't let it affect your thought process on the matter. But I do respect and appreciate the reasoning behind it, which you can see here. Now there are of course, other popular, potential nicknames out there for the guy (Poster Boy, The Blake Show, Blake Superior, The Auburn Mamba, just to name a few), and those are all well and good, but I too, bring my own set of Blake Griffin nicknames to the table. They are as follows, in no particular order, and meant to be read quickly: Blake O' Bits, Dr. Blakenstein, Blake Killed Kenny, Tonka Truck, The Ultimate Swirlior, Swirl Jam, Griffitron, Herschel Walker's Workout, The Ruins of Babylon, Denny's Grand Slam, Double Dopplar, The Situation Times 2, Betty White on Acid....I could go on, but I don't want to drop too much verbal gold on America. Plus, I'm copyrighting the best ones. So if there's one thing we've learned today, it's that Blake Griffin has a bunch of nicknames, but only one that comes with a really cool picture. FACT.

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Going to round this out with a Maria Menounos. All-Star heavy blog...and should have picked someone easier to spell, dear heavens.

Chicken Scratch Fever

Now that I am in my early-to-mid-to-mid-late twenties, holidays have lost some of their luster. I mean, I don't get action figures for Christmas anymore so that day is shot, and Thanksgiving keeps heading down a dark road to nowhere because the NFL, for some ridiculous reason, keeps forcing the Dallas Cowboys down the American public's throat. Then there's Arbor Day...I'm going to have to stop myself...getting a little too emotional and some deep feelings are resurfacing. Point being, a new holiday that is gaining momentum and surging toward the top of my list is National Signing Day.

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Cairo. That's trending right now, isn't it?

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But back to NSD '11 (I wanted to see how terrible I could make myself sound by turning that into an acronym...I found the answer is "pretty"). The past couple years, I have started to follow the recruiting wars and rankings over the InterWebs...and let me tell you, it is fascinating stuff. So much so that it even made me read a book. I know...I know. Bruce Feldman's "Meat Market", which is a creepy title now that I look at it, but nevertheless, it did push my total number of books read cover-to-cover to a whopping 3. So if you are having withdrawal from the college football season and need something to roll tide you over, do like I do and immerse yourself in who is going to commit, decommit...sign, not sign...prep school, or JUCO first but then hop on board...with your school. As you can see, mine happens to be the Real USC, and with this haul of some 30-odd signings tomorrow, I am counting on hearing even more "Sandstorm" in the years to come.

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Jennifer Lopez. She's back.