And possibly change your life.

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A quick look at some of the snacks we had for the SuperBowl party: Popcorn, queso, chiptole black bean dip, sausage balls, and of course hamburgers and hot dogs. On the couch from left to right: Melinda, Katie, Ryan. Jonathan is currently in the kitchen…

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Last year in November Travis Miller suggested that I tryout for the Dallas Desperados. My whole life I’ve been stopped by people, almost on a weekly basis, and asked, “Do you play football?” And so I decided that yeah, it’s been 16 years since I played football and so I should probably give it another whirl.

After deciding to do the tryouts the idea of actually going through with it has loomed over me like a dark could. Every bite I took, every time I went to the gym, every time I went to my regular office job I was niggled with thoughts of “What if?” These thoughts were like tiny rats that gnawed on me day after day as if I was some huge 350lb block of cheese.

Last night I had to take some Tylenol PM because I was apprehensive about the tryouts today. I wasn’t afraid of not making, I was afraid of making it.  It would be a dream come true coupled with a nightmare. I’d be leaving the safety and security of my job and my cushy life to face a grueling lifestyle that while possibly filled with a lot of reward would probably break my body down even further than it already is. It was all a chance I was willing to take. I at least wanted to go out and give 110% and see if I had the option of playing or not.

The morning started out with me arriving at the stadium 2 hours early. I checked in and watched the wide receivers going through their routines: running 40 yard dashes, passing routes, and a myriad of other drills. At noon they called all of us linemen down onto the field and we went through a long series of warm ups. By the time we were through warming up I was pretty tired. After that we went through the shuttle, the long jump and a 20 yard dash. We did every drill twice and I thought I was holding my own. When I looked around at the men in my group I was slightly above average in size, but there were two guys that were taller than me and a number of guys who were short, squatty and quick.

Finally we got through a series of drills and the line coach pulled us aside to jump over some bags with high knees, then run through them in a zig-zag pattern. Back and forth it went and my body was screaming out – STOP! But I was hiding and through these first 8 drills the line coach made 3 cuts. Out of 35 or so guys were were down to 20. We started doing some basic 3 point stances and then jumping up and I thought I was doing great and this is where I got cut. What? Cut already? I mean I haven’t shown you how hard I can hit, you’ve hardly seen me do anything, and why did you make me do all those runs and jumps if you were planning on cutting me when I did a three point stance? WHY?!?!?!  Why not tell me that is going to be the key thing that you are judging and then I could have practiced it.

Either way, I’m very glad I tried it. I’m proud of myself for getting through 4 rounds and going through with the whole ordeal. And I’m elated that I no longer have the dark cloud of “what if” looming over my head. Life can go back to normal. I can concentrate on getting my MBA and doing my myriad of projects and just being me.

Thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement and support. I’m not the least bit disappointed so no need to post comments of regret.

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OU got beat 45-35 on Saturday in the Texas v. Oklahoma showdown.

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The Desperado tryouts are only 26 days away now and for those of you who were confused, I am trying out to play Football for them, not to dance for them.

The Dallas Desperados are an Arena football team and they play at the American Airlines Center – so it won’t be my first time to perform there, it will just be a totally different kind of performance.

Lately I’ve been doing a great deal of praying because I keep breaking my body down and then rebuilding it and the pain, the good kind as well as the bad, need something stronger than Advil – they need a miracle.

I’m bench pressing 315 now the way I used to bench press 275. I can do shoulder presses with 90 pound dumbells 8 times despite the fact that my shoulders have always been weak due to a dislocation in high school.

My endurance is decent and I still need to lose about 20 pounds, but I’m not stressing too much about it. Stress is really counterproductive to all things physical and so I’m really taking it easy, getting lots of rest, saying no to hanging out with friends and taking care of my school work and stuff early instead of waiting until the last minute.

This week I’ll be focusing on my speed. Lots of running. Better eating. Cooking at home. Going to bed early. 26 days and my life could change forever or it could stay the same, either way it will be fun trying!

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I searched around for more information on the Dallas Desperado Tryouts yesterday. I found some FAQ’s that had some information in them that was surprisingL Practices are every day from 8a.m. – 2p.m, the minimum salary is 28,000 which comes out to about 1700 per game, very few people are actually chosen from the try-outs, but some have been and have even been drafted into the NFL.

This week I started getting up at 6 a.m and going to the gym. I’m always too tired in the evenings to really be productive, plus, working out in the even just takes up too much time. I’ve started to realized that home ownership, plus Grad School, plus general life busy-ness is not something that can be accomplished successfully without taking an aggressive approach. So I’m kicking up the aggression and learning to use it to my advantage.

Along with 6 a.m. workouts I’ve started watching my caloric intake once more. I decided not to be too rigid, but to be mindful of what I am eating, this approach allows for flexibility with liimitations – which is basically a Weight Watchers approach. I’ve been eating lots of lean proteins and veggies and taking fruit to work with me. There is this guy that is always eating fruit during meetings. Chomp, chomp, chomp. He bites away in to crisp Granny Smith apples, plums, grapes, yogurt. He’s very thin and he’s always eating. He’s actually inspired me to take fruit with me to meetings because often times in meetings you are just listening and piece of fruit will keep you alert and it’s good for you.

So my plan is to really take an aggressive approach to my life in all areas, school, work, diet, budget, relationships – it’s very taxing, but I think in the end the results should pay-off. Along the way I am going to get ready to be one of the few people who actually get picked to be a Dallas Desperado. I’ve got 90 days that will be filled with excerise and protein powder. Should be interesting.

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Last night was the first night of the Ultimate Frisbee league. My team, Low Mileage, has age ranges of 15 to probably 55. Some people are very familiar with league rules and some of us just showed up to play. I was lost a couple of times when everyone got in this big line in the middle of the field. The level of intensity is about 4 times higher than what I am used to and I sort of got bogged down a little bit by the rules at first. I like my Ultimate Free flowing and simple, but I signed up for the league to get better.

Our team leader is really good. He’s probably late 30′s or early 40′s. His daughter and son are on the team and they are 18 and 15. They were also very good.

One of my new team members pulled me aside and started teaching me how to throw. At first I was a little annoyed that he wanted to teach me, I only made one bad pass during the game and that was my only opportunity to pass and so I didn’t really think I had an opportunity to show what my skill level was. Plus, I have been on Frisbee hiatus because of my broke foot. But, I’m not too arrogant to think that I can’t use some extra teaching and if someone is willing to take the time to teach me, I’ll humble myself. We started with basic throw, which I think I’m pretty good at, but then we worked on forehand throws which I suck at and before long I was started to get it. I don’t like to work on things that I’m not immediately good at, but this is something I need to improve upon and so I was actually very grateful and appreciative that he took the time to show me how to throw better.

This morning my foot hurts, but no more than it did before Ultimate. What really hurts is my right glute and right hamstring. They are mondo sore today. My heels spurs are actually hurting too, so much so that I can barely walk this morning. Before this foot injury they were like 75% better, now I feel like I have regressed so much in just six weeks.

Now I’ve got my Ultimate on Saturdays and my Wednesday night ultimate and hopefully we can get a practice game or a pickup game on Sunday afternoons or Monday nights. I am going to see what I can do to make that happen.

I’m very excited about this new level of play. About being further challenged to make myself better. My new team has a lot of cool people on it and I think it is going to be a great experience.

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My roommate and I have started playing racquetball together and it is really fun because right now he is still learning and so I have been winning every game. He gets upset and I tell him to take it easy, that he is just learning.

We get so much more out of failure than we do success, people just don’t realize it. It takes a lot to learn how to lose well, to allow failure to expose your weakness, to sharpen you, to help you see what you need to keep working on.

Winning, especially winning easily, makes for hollow victories, complacency and arrogance. Losing allows for humility and acceptance of defeat with grace. Learning to lose well shows character. When we are beaten, we shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it, but instead, we should look for areas of improvement.

I don’t like to lose, but I think succeeding all the time would get old.

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I mentored this guy while he was in high school and he is still like my little brother. This makes me so proud as many of you know that I am a huge fan of SNL’s Spartan Cheerleaders…

Here are his comments…

So my agency was tasked with creating and submitting the some “America’s Cheers” for the 2008 Olympics. It’s for a promotion we’re helping Bank of America launch since they’re the official bank of the Olympics this year. One of the BANK execs set up an inter-agency competition to help kick-off the promotion with the winners receiving 2 free tickets for an all-expense paid trip to the games in August. We all split up and submitted our own “cheers” for the competition.

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On Wednesday, March 5, 32 year old Eddie Renz joined the TI Track team. “I’m throwing shot put and discus, but I’d really like to train and run the 100 meter or 200 meter as well.” Renz said, albeit breathlessly, in a recent interview. This claim seemed unlikely since Renz weighs 340 pounds. However, the official meet isn’t until June and so he plans to start running now in an effort to be in shape for both events.

TI has won the USCAA national track meet for the last 7 years and plans to win this year as well.

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I got this from the Mavericks in an email today at 12:20pm

Art Garcia | Mavs.com
Posted: Feb. 19, 2008
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You knew it was coming. You just didn’t know how it was going to get there. Just like one of his trademark passes, the trade of Jason Kidd to the Mavericks was delivered in unexpected fashion.

The eight-time All-Star point guard returns to the franchise of his NBA birth after the seven-player deal with New Jersey was finally consummated Tuesday. After six days of twists and turns, the Mavs dealt Devin Harris, Gana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Moe Ager, Keith Van Horn, a pair of draft picks and cash to acquire Kidd, Malik Allen and Antoine Wright from New Jersey.

The Mavs re-signed Van Horn, who hasn’t played since the 2006 Finals, to make the deal work financially. To make room for Van Horn, rookie forward Nick Fazekas was waived.

The Kidd deal is the latest in a series of blockbusters that have shaken the Western Conference. The Lakers were the first to strike, acquiring Pau Gasol from Memphis. Phoenix followed suit with a high-risk, high-reward swap of Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks for Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal.

The Mavs have insisted that those deals didn’t pressure a response. The addition of Kidd fortifies the point guard position and adds a top-flight distributor to pair with Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry. Kidd is expected to be in uniform when the Mavs (35-18) resume the season Wednesday at Southwest Division-leading New Orleans.

The Mavs haven’t had an All-Star caliber point guard since Steve Nash. Harris, 24, was in the midst of a career-best season (14.4 points and 5.3 assists) before injuring his left ankle in late January.

Kidd, 34, is averaging 11.3 points, 10.4 assists (third in the league) and 8.1 rebounds this season. Allen (6-10, 255) has played for four teams in his seven-year career. The Villanova product has averaged 5.9 points and 3.2 rebounds during that span. Texas A&M product Wright (6-7, 215) adds another swingman to the rotation with Hassell’s departure, and is averaging 7.3 points in 41 games this season.

Diop (7-0, 280) spent his 2 1/2 seasons with the Mavs as part of the center tandem with Erick Dampier. Hassell, a veteran shooting guard acquired during training camp from Minnesota, has played sparingly in his first season in Dallas. Ager, a second-year guard, has shuttled between the Mavs and the NBDL.

Kidd concluded his run with New Jersey by representing the Nets on the Eastern Conference team in Sunday’s All-Star Game. Besides his obvious on-court gifts, Kidd’s mental toughness and leadership are qualities coveted by the Mavs front office. He has 99 career triple-doubles, third all-time.

Kidd was drafted by the Mavs with the second overall pick in 1994. He split Rookie of the Year honors with Grant Hill, but his stay in Dallas was short. Kidd was traded to Phoenix the day after Christmas in 1996 for Michael Finley, Sam Cassell and A.C. Green. The Suns dealt him to New Jersey in the 2001 offseason. He led the Nets to the Finals in 2002 and ’03

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This is big, almost as big as that moustache on Shaq’s face! What is that? I haven’t seen one of those since I last saw Biggy’s mom.

The Sun’s are taking over the last 2.5 years of Shaq’s 100 million dollar contract which was 5 years, 100 million. I don’t even know what I would do with all that money. I mean, I am sure I could find a way to spend the first 50 or so, but after that I think I would be all spent out.

Football season is over and so now it’s time to focus back on the NBA… Speaking of NBA – what is going on with the Mavericks? And just in case you haven’t gotten the memo, No, I am not a ManiAAC anymore. Wow… I never expected that to stay with me as long as it has.

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