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Dan O'Neill covers golf for the StL P-D. This explains why I don't remember reading one of his columns. Today I did. The reason I did was because of the headline of his most recent column.


"Lil' hip-hop would be music to Jax's ears, Dawg"


For those of you who aren't aware, after Sunday's game, Steven Jackson mentioned he would like the stadium to play more current music. A little hip-hop, a little alternative rock; anything to pump up the crowd. Fairly harmless, off-hand remark.

Dan O'Neill for some reason took offense and wrote this article that just ends up making him look like a crotchety, ignorant old dude. I don't know Dan, but if the shoe fits...

(embarassing portions highlighted, my comments in red)

Dan wrote:You know, it just shows you how dumb we can be. Here we thought the problems on Sundays at the Edward Jones Dome were scoreboard related. The home team always seems to wind up with fewer points.

And we thought the source of that problem might be the players, or the poor execution, such as a failure to execute a snap with the game in the balance. But finally, after Sunday's 24-19 loss to Seattle at the dome, we got to the heart of the matter. It's the music selection.

Rams running back Steven Jackson pointed out this glaring deficiency to reporters after Sunday's loss. Jackson asked the scribes to petition the stadium-operation types to play more lively music.

Of course, that's what is missing — hip-hop!

How can the Rams expect to turn things around without a change in music application? What are these stadium people thinking, not playing more hip-hop with a predominantly middle-aged audience in the stands? How can these Souljas Boys [its Soulja Boy, g] be expected to perform when the commercial interludes aren't jumping, yo?

The road to the Super Bowl starts with a clef, a five-line staff, and a bleeped-out rhyme. If you want players to be entertaining, you have to entertain them. You need to turn The Ed into The Club and give the crew a more inspiring musical format in which to work.

Jackson suggested the situation be addressed with a write-up, so here it is, Dawg. We're calling on the stadium DJ to pump it up, and we thought these 10 titles might be most appropriate for our 2-9 posse.

— Wasted Time — Fuel

— Why You Hate The Game — The Game featuring Marsha Ambrosia

— I Don't Care — Ricky Martin featuring Fat Joe and Amerie

— Keep The Car Running — Arcade [It's the Arcade Fire, dawg]

— Sorry, Blame It On Me — Akron [It's Akon, holmes]

— Weak Inna Knees (aka "Give It Up For The O-Line") — Sean Paul

— The Art of Losing— American Hi-Fi

— Not Going Nowhere — Baby Face

— Heartbreaker — Wil.I.Am

— I Apologize — K-Ci

I suspect Dan has never heard any of those songs. Also, I realize that it is up to the paginators to make headlines, but I worked in the sports department for a semi-major newspaper. I know writers tell the paginators often what they want the headline to be. He could have had a hand in it. Either way, the headline is insulting and borderline racist. The article itself is just embarassing, unprofessional and annoying. He obviously had a valid point to make; that being that the music isn't losing the Rams these games. Poor play is. Thing about that is, Jackson never said anything close to blaming the music for losses. He just said it would be nice to get some more upbeat music. I fail to see the problem with that. Then O'Neill comes out with this article that directly insults Jackson and indirectly insults his intelligence. Jackson is a smart dude. I've never met the man, but I've never heard him say anything stupid, iirc his parents are lawyers, he has a college education and even if he is a dumb guy, he doesn't deserve to be insulted like this.
Bottom line, old, white guys writing sarcastic articles about hip-hop will never come across well. This article should not have ran.

Whatever, thrill. Get off my my lawn.

Wow, that's pretty bad. He would've gotten his point across in a much less embarrassing fashion had he chosen to... well, do the complete opposite of what he did here. I'm not even sure how he decided Jackson's comment was implying that music was the underlying problem - surely he's not that dense?

I wonder if he realizes how funny this "article" is to the rest of us...

I took it to the zoo: http://www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopi ... c&&start=0

Meh. Beware a columnist in need of a column. I think when the team is losing you get this or Jay Marriotti style rants. I'll take this every once in a while.

I think Jackson has a good point. We're nearing the day when there are more players on the field than fans in the crowd at the Dome, so we should probably play what the players want to hear.

--P--

I said a hip hop
the hippie the hippie
to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it

to the bang bang boogie, say up jumped the boogie
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

thrill wrote:I took it to the zoo: http://www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopi ... c&&start=0

And the animals became restless.

The one complaint I have is that there is just too much music period at sporting events. It's like they have to fill every down second with something. I watched the Bulls/Raptors in Toronto on TV the other day, and I swear there was music blaring the entire time, even when the ball was in play. I thought I was watching some weird ballet.

jim wrote:The one complaint I have is that there is just too much music period at sporting events. It's like they have to fill every down second with something. I watched the Bulls/Raptors in Toronto on TV the other day, and I swear there was music blaring the entire time, even when the ball was in play. I thought I was watching some weird ballet.

I'm pretty sure they do play music during NBA games WHEN the ball is in play.