dear tony,

we know you’re bummed and we want to make you happy.

we know you’re a big fan of our music and of j mascis and pavement and mike watt and eddie vedder and we have brought them all and many more to Westwood for a three day weekend and we want to entertain you.

it’s $50 for one day or $100 for the whole enchelada. please come.

we tried to get Mariah cuz we know how much she means to you, but she was busy, we tried to get AC/DC because we know how much you love them but they are recording a new record.

we tried to get your friends, Tsar, but they would wipe the stage with us, so please accept what we have to offer, which is basically just us and some very cool bands like Cat Power and Television and that super crazy Japanese noise band The Boredoms.

If you cant find a date, we’ll hook your skinny ass up.

love always,

Sonic Youth

sometimes things are so fucked up that even forgetting about it doesnt help.

life isnt fair. that’s the way the cookie crumbles. nice guys finish last. life sucks and then you die. wait till next year. etc. etc.

but im not like that. i dont believe any of that. i think all that stuff are quotes by losers for losers to make losers feel less like losers. but fuck losers. they are the people that you whallop before you have to take on the worthy challengers.

i believe that when something as ridiculous and fucked up as what went down in the storybook setting of snowy foxborough happens, cooler heads should right the wrong.

im hearing that when the season is over, the incompletion rule will be changed or reworded, or worded so that an incomplete pass looks different on paper than a second-string quarterback getting his shit handed to him in the mush ending the game and the season for the valiant patriots. and i appreciate courage so much you dont even know and what would be so courageous would be if the nfl would just say right here and now that that play was misscalled and it was to be the last play of the game and because of the miscall the wrong team won and the right team lost.

and because i believe in fairness, i will tell you that if the Cubs won the world series on a play at the plate and if baseball had instant replay and if the replay umpire called the Cub safe, but it was obvious that he was out, i would make the official change the call to out, because that is the right thing to do.

now theres a disturbance in the force.

just like when George Bush took office.

and when things get out of whack, fucked up things get in the mix and losers win and winners lose and a mess of mess is created in its foul wake.

fuck the nfl if they dont right this wrong before next week.

fuck them.

what we all saw was the biggest travesty that ive ever seen in professional sports. everyone knows that the nfl and al davis dont get along. but not everyone knows that in the two playoff games that the raiders played, only one penalty was called against their opponents. do i think the referees were in on it?

all i know is that only one penalty was called in two games.

and i know that the raiders won their final game but an unseen face in the referee booth overruled the call on the field and gave the playoff win to the patriots who had, at that time had lost it, and everyone everywhere knew that they had lost it.

here it is days later and i still dont know what to say.

but of course i do.

i hope that the NFL commisioner Paul Tagliabue gets a fast-moving cancer in his left testicle that attacks his right testicle.

i hope Mike Pereira, the NFL’s director of officiating comes down with a terrible cold, which in fact isnt a cold at all, but a new form of lung cancer that turns your heart black and your blood green and your face grey and your eyes pink and your death immediate and your soul evaporate.

finally i hope that all the NFL press corps, particularilly the columnists and commentators stand up and call bullshit when bullshit is dealt and quit standing behind a ruling that wouldnt have held water in a flag football game in a park, or a little league game on a field, or a college game in a stadium, and definaletly not a playoff game in front of tens of millions.

why is it that im the only fellow on a keyboard outraged and thinking that there could be something done about this right now so that the Raiders could be playing the Steelers this weekend?

that’s right, im also the fool who thinks that the Cubs will win it all before i die, and that this site will get me laid.

is there anyone who covers football or who is in a position of power at the NFL or the New England Patriots themselves who have enough class to say that what went down was fucked and it shouldnt be so and that things should be different and they will make it so.

sadly, america, there isn’t.