The REAL. BIG. Blog

New York Jets Logo Fathead Wall Graphic

By Rebecca Moodie

New York Giants Logo Fathead Wall Graphic

On Sunday, the New York Jets gave me the best birthday present ever; they all but DESTROYED the undefeated Tennessee Titans 34-13, executing a consistent offense and a dominant defense.  The defense held the Titans to just 3 points in the first half and although we don’t see Brett Favre as the gunslinger he was in his early Packer days, he has developed into so much more for the Jets by becoming the on-field leader they desperately needed.

So with this one W, the Jets have achieved the unthinkable. As division leaders and arguably the best team in the AFC, their game seems to be more complete and balanced then ever before and they look to be unstoppable right now. They have suddenly made their way into the conversations about the “big game” and they are finally getting the respect they deserve from outside their fan base.

So with the Jets and New York Giants playing the way they are, dare I say we may see the first ever “Subway” Super Bowl??? (Knock on wood.)  It would be the game of many lifetimes, a story to pass down to generations come, possibly the most exciting game in sports history! (Okay so I’m obviously from New York.  But come on, it would definitely be one for the books).

I don’t want to jump the gun, as there are still many weeks to play.  As they say, “any given Sunday”.  Of course, anything can happen at this point, but there is still a flicker of hope inside me for that headline… “Jets Take on Reigning Super Bowl Champs in Tampa”.  Maybe we can finally end our 40 year drought.  Fingers crossed!

By Apryl DeLancey

Aah…the start of the NBA season.  Depending on who you listen to, the Los Angeles Lakers are going to take the title or the Boston Celtics will repeat.  I’m personally pulling for the first scenario.  Of course, I’m an extremely biased Los Angeles native.  I’m still not over the Lakers playing like absolute dirt against the aforementioned Celtics in the finals last year.  I mean seriously, it seemed like Kobe Bryant only played on half a tank of fuel at times.  Eh, que sera sera…I just can’t get too worked up by the games so far.  Yes, the Lakers are atop the West and the Celtics are atop the East.  There are still MANY months of basketball to be played so I will reserve judgment on who will be the champs until I see more.  Heck, who knows… maybe the Clippers could pull something out.  Then again, maybe the St. Louis Rams will miraculously make the NFL playoffs this year and the Los Angeles Kings will be NHL champs.  Yeah, I know…fairy tales.

Speaking of the Clippers, they have this very nice facility just down the street from me here in the LAX/Marina Del Rey area.  What is interesting is that this is not too far from the Lakers complex in El Segundo.  For those of you not privy to the Los Angeles layout, both of these are close to LAX and pretty far from the Staples Center downtown where they play.  So my question is this – did the Clippers move closer to the coast and airport to be closer to the Lakers and therefore maybe getting some of their good mojo to rub off on them?  Or do they just want to be closer to the wonderful breezes of the Pacific Ocean?  Regardless, the new practice facility for the Clippers is modern and has a ticker on the outside so that you can catch up on team news.  Maybe I’ll start seeing them around lunchtime like I do certain Lakers members.  Yeah, I really do see Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, and Luke Walton every now and then at the local lunch or coffee spot.  In fact, Luke and his brother have a little restaurant nearby.  I know – I’ve got a rough life.

Speaking of interesting NBA possibilities, it appears that everyone’s favorite Maverick, owner that is, is facing a heavy accusation of insider trading.  As we know from the whole Martha Stewart incident, this is not something that the powers that be tolerate with much empathy.  This story is at its preliminary stages so there isn’t a reason to jump to conclusions yet.  Even Mark Cuban deserves a fair shake.  How sad would it be to just have this turn out to be a witch hunt of sorts.  It is no secret that he has rubbed some the wrong way but this is not a reason to assume his guilt so early.  Let’s be civil, folks.

Who are you watching this NBA season?

By Rebecca Moodie

Pittsburgh Steelers Helmet Fathead Wall Graphic

The Pittsburgh Steelers got the “W” yesterday.  In a monumental victory, the Steelers beat the Chargers 11-10; the first 11-10 final score ever before in NFL history.  They were definitely victorious over the Chargers, but should they have won by 7 points, or 8???  $32 millions dollars and an errant call say they should have.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, down 10-8 with seconds left in regulation, failed to score a TD in the red zone and settled for a field goal, putting them in front of the Chargers 11-10.  After a risky kick-off return play with several lateral pass attempts, the Chargers had the ball on the Steelers 21-yard line.  In an attempt to keep the drive and the game alive, the ball changed hands several times during the play.  It was eventually deflected by the

San Diego Chargers Helmet Fathead Wall Graphic

Steelers Troy Polamalu, who recovered the fumble and ran the ball into the end zone for a touchdown to put the Steelers up 17-10, with no time remaining.  Before the extra-point attempt, the play was called in for review.  Initially, the head official announced that the ruling on the field stood and the result of the play was a touchdown.  However, shortly thereafter, the officials reconvened and recalled that an illegal forward pass should have ruled the play dead and the touchdown was taken away, ending the game with a score of 11-10.  In an interview after the game, the head official admitted that the final call on the game was incorrect.  The pass that was deflected resulting in the ball hitting the ground was not an illegal forward pass, and thus the recovery and resulting touchdown should have been upheld.

There must have been very unhappy bettors and elated bookies, as $32 million dollars in wagers was lost by those who picked the Steelers to cover the spread yesterday.  With a 4 and a half point line, with 5 seconds left in regulation bettors saw the Steelers fail to cover, then cover, then fail to cover again.  And all on an admittedly incorrect call.

Fortunately, my internal crystal ball advised me to steer clear of a game where both teams have had seemingly inconsistent seasons, but for those of you who did not have the same inclination, this was another costly referee mistake (one among many made by NFL refs this season).  Only this mistake cost much more to some then others.

By Shawn Lucas

The biggest development of the NHL year so far is the New Jersey Devils losing Martin Brodeur to injury.  He is out for 3-4 months after having surgery to repair a torn distal bicep tendon in his left elbow.  For a team that has relied on him to play an average of 73 games a year for the last 12 hockey seasons, this comes as a major blow.

As far as MVPs go team-wise, there doesn’t seem to be any greater in recent memory than Brodeur to the Devils.  The Devils are a team that have consistently relied on their suffocating defense and the one consistent catalyst for that has always been Brodeur. Despite the loss of Hall of Famers like Scott Niedermayer and Scott Stevens over the last decade, the Devils have competed for the top spot in their division and conference nearly every year.

A future Hall of Famer himself, Brodeur’s many accomplishments include include being a 4-time Vezina winner as the league’s most outstanding goalie, a 4-time winner of the William M. Jennings trophy (awarded to the goaltender of the team with the fewest goals scored against) and posting lifetime averages of 2.20 GAA and .914 save percentage.  That’s a resume most players would love to call their own.

This year began with the expectation that Brodeur would break both Terry Sawchuk’s all-time shutout record, as well as Patrick Roy’s all-time win record.  Getting injured ten games into the season, Brodeur was forced to put his goals on hold.  Left to hold the fort in his place?  Journeymen Kevin Weekes and Scott Clemmensen, who share a combined career win-loss record of 107-168.  The more experienced of the two is Weekes with a top season record of  14-14 in 2005-06 with the New York Rangers.  

With 68 games left to play this season, the Devils new goaltending tandem is tasked with helping the team register an additional 76 points.  They currently stand tied for 8th place with 16 points (7-5-2) and the logical cut-off to make the post-season is 92 points, based on the last 4 years final Eastern Conference standings from NHL.com.  

The Devils cannot be expected to pick up the slack offensively as they have never been an offensive team and currently have only 1 player in double digits for points, Zach Parise (11G, 16P).  Their defense corps cannot be compared to years past either, as it has gone from the future Hall of Fame members mentioned above, to the current likes of John Oduya (21:27 per game, 6P, +7) and Bryce Salvador (-5 on the season, -20 for his career).  

Without a major move from GM Lou Lamoriello or a strong push by their current roster, it seems as though this will be only the second time since Brodeur began his career with the Devils 15 seasons ago, that they will miss the playoffs.  If, however, Weekes and Clemmensen can keep the Devils in the hunt until late February when Brodeur is expected to return, we will definitely have our front runners for the Hart Memorial Trophy (the player adjudged most valuable to his team).

By Apryl DeLancey

As the country is knee deep in the very interesting NFL season I thought I’d take a moment to talk about baseball:

I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that the Tampa Bay Rays are for real.  Yeah, I know, they choked in the World Series.  But really – they were at the very bottom last season.  I mean the BOTTOM.  That whole worst to first thing was going on.  To even make it to the playoffs was a major feat and the first in their franchise history.  They knocked off the precious Boston Red Sox on the way and totally owned the New York Yankees all season.  In spite of what you may think – the Tampa Bay Rays are a real baseball team now.   They are on the map and deserve fans and recognition!

Rays third baseman Evan Longoria was recently named the American League Rookie of the Year.  Ha!  A player from the Tampa Bay Rays!  Seriously!  Talk about validation.  Longoria is only one of the many young stars that keep the franchise afloat.  The lineup is chock full of the young and talented like Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro.  On the other side of the diamond, first baseman Carlos Pena got a Golden Glove nod for himself.  More validation.  Hopefully the team stays mostly intact through this offseason so they can come back strong next year.  The team can only get better.  I’ll bet if they make it back to the World Series they’ll actually put up a big fight and perhaps even win the whole thing.

On the other hand, the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to let the Manny Ramirez clock run.  Let’s see where he ends up.  We all want him to stay here in Los Angeles.  With the Dodgers.  The New York Yankees already have their wallet open if he doesn’t stay.  In other news, the Dodgers decided to let Brad Penny become a free agent.  Who will be next?

Speaking of the National League and the Dodgers, the playoff sweep of the Chicago Cubs didn’t stop catcher Geovany Soto from getting the NL Rookie of the Year nod.  Congratulations to him.

The landscape of the MLB map is undergoing a change.  I like to think it is for the better since teams that are not exclusively from the northeast corner of the country are making headlines.  A similar migration of power happened in the NFL when the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, and San Francisco 49ers lost their stranglehold on NFL titles.  It’s now happening in baseball.  Fans tire of the same teams winning all the time.  At least this one does.  Let’s mix it up!

By Ignacio Salazar

Houston Texans Logo Fathead Wall Graphic

Matt Schaub? Big Bad Bust! Sage Rosenfels? Well, he has seven turnovers in seven quarters of play this year to go along with that Texas-sized meltdown against the Colts in week four. Sprinkle some sage on that Texan fan.

This great city has been without a legit quarterback since 1993 when Warren Moon led the Houston Oilers to 12-4 with an AFC Central title before he was traded off to the Minnesota Vikings.

What’s the deal? Why can’t Houston get a GM in here who knows how to find a quarterback? Look around the NFL. There are quarterbacks around this league that came out of nowhere and yet Houston can’t catch a break.

Dallas has Tony Romo, a two-time Pro Bowler who went undrafted. Atlanta and Baltimore have two rookie’s starting, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco and both teams are 6-3 and in the playoff hunt. Arizona has a former grocery sacker, 37-year old Kurt Warner who has his team in first place. Chicago and Minnesota have Kyle Orton and Gus Frerotte, both known as backups but both have their teams tied for first place and Houston looks clueless at the position.

The Texans need a makeover from head-to-toe and it needs to start at the quarterback position. The Texans need someone that can lead this team, get them fired up and someone who can lead a comeback or put a game away when needed. Until that happens, here’s to dreaming of Warren Moon wrecking havoc on NFL defenses.

Notes: Since Moon left the quarterback reigns in Houston, no Houston quarterback, Oilers or Texans, has led his team a record over .500.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of Fathead, LLC.  Of course, we do agree that Warren Moon was a fine quarterback!

Whether anticipating election results through polls or prognosticating with a Tarot deck, years of election forecasts have proven only one thing: no one’s ever right 100% of the time.  Unless, of course, you happen to be Fathead.  Like we are.  By forecasting Barack Obama’s landslide victory over John McCain weeks before the first ballots were even cast, our company - best known for life-size sports and entertainment wall graphics - proved to be the real prognosticating McCoy…batting .1000 out of the gate.

So how did Fathead pull off this incredible feat of fortunetelling?  Quite simple.  After an especially tiresome product planning meeting that devolved into the staff taking turns doing voice impressions of the Presidential candidates, the metaphorical light bulb appeared aver the conference room table.  We all thought it, regardless who said it out loud.  The idea, articulated, was to produce wall graphics of the candidates.  The election season had already dragged on for over a year-and-a-half and was receiving near constant media coverage. As the two most recognizable faces on the planet, the Democratic and Republican nominees would fly off the shelves! (Sadly, the Mike Seaver and Richard “Boner” Stabone Growing Pains wall graphics were put on hold in favor of producing the candidates.)

Both politicians were thrilled with the idea and immediately agreed to becoming Fathead wall graphics.  (Both were also amazingly good sports about the inevitable “Fathead” Fatheads jabs.)  Soon, the new wall graphics were for sale at Fathead.com,  accompanied by an unofficial poll offering people the opportunity to “vote early” for their favorite candidate. From the first vote forward, Obama held a commanding lead over McCain and maintained a healthy cushion between them for the duration of the seemingly endless election.

Both politicians took advantage of their vinyl surrogates in imaginative ways you’d never expect from government employees  After the election, disgruntled campaign staffers told us that McCain spent hours in his office aboard the Straight Talk Express making hilarious faces at the Obama Fathead, attempting to get them out of his system before each debate.  Rumor has it Sarah Palin also employed a McCain Fathead during debate training, where she rehearsed looking into his eyes and repeating the mantra “maverick” without doubling over in hysterical laughter.  After McCain suspended his campaign to focus on the $700 bailout bill and announced his intention to skip the first debate, Obama’s advance team took action – creative action.  Had McCain not appeared for the debate, the nation would have witnessed his Fathead behind the podium while Obama soaked up the love center stage on national television.

With election season in full swing and Fathead moving full steam ahead through the typical hurly-burly of an online retail business heading into the fourth quarter, our team decided to make some election news of our own and declared Barack Obama the winner.  So how did we know?  Quite simply: we sold out of Obama Fathead wall graphics weeks before the election!  Similar Presidential predictions have been made over the years based upon the sale of candidate Halloween masks.  The candidate whose masks move off the shelves the fastest tend to win the election.  If companies were bound by the same age restrictions as voters, Fathead would be unable to cast a ballot for fifteen years.  The 2008 decision being the first election in our young company’s history, we were intent on making a little history of their own.

So with a perfect 1-1 record, will Fathead launch a foray into the prognosticating business?  Only the volume of Obama and Palin wall graphics sold during the 2012 election will tell us for sure!

Disclaimer:  Although written by a Fathead employee, the opinions expressed in this email do not reflect those of Fathead, LLC nor does the company accept any responsibility for anything that comes from this writer’s pen or mouth.  Stories attributed to individual candidates might be true – although who can really say what’s true or not these days?  The important thing is that the essence of the story – that Fathead predicted Obama’s REAL.BIG. win – is undeniably factual.

By Apryl DeLancey

Can you believe that the Tennessee Titans are 8-0?  I was fortunate to pick up their amazing defense in my Fantasy Football draft at the start of the season.  I say fortunate since it was my very last pick and sort of an afterthought.  Bwahaha!  At any rate, let me just write that again – the Tennessee Titans are 8-0.  I find that remarkable since the team is buried deep in NCAA Football territory.  Most of the sports fans in the area are die-hard Tennessee Volunteers fans that aren’t big followers of pro football.  I’m guessing that’s changing.

Besides, the Titans are living up to their name while the New England Patriots continue to bewilder some and amuse others.   The Pats loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 9 puts their record at 5-3.  One bewildering fact is that they’ve managed to play an entire game earlier this season completely penalty-free.  Fans are also holding on to the hope that former USC Trojan Matt Cassel can continue to perform in Tom Brady’s absence.  So far he’s done a great job of stepping up.

Lastly, what the heck happened to the Dallas Cowboys?  First, Tony Romo suffers a minor injury that keeps him from playing.  Then, Terrell Owens can’t seem to buy a catch.  (In fact, I had to bench him from my Fantasy team this week.)  The Cowboys were lucky to make it past the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 8, but were utterly embarrassed in Week 9 by the New York Giants.  Brad Johnson threw many interceptions, but one of the Cowboys’ touchdowns came from an Eli Manning interception that was run back.  Luckily, the ‘boys have a bye week ahead of them and can pause to regroup.  Everyone predicted they would have a really great year…

Not surprisingly, the Atlanta Falcons went on the road and completely demolished the Oakland Raiders. I really would like to see the Raiders get it together…soon.

It has been a wild NFL season so far and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out!

Tomorrow, the election will finally be over…knock on my thick, wooden skull for luck.  That means every news source (network, internet, cable, satellite, radio and beauty salon) will have to actually broadcast news again!  Just in case you’ve forgotten, those are stories without words like, “Obama, McCain, Poll, Socialist, Early Bird Special or Tina Fey” in the headline.  If you’re like me, you’re wondering what you’ve missed over the last two years.  Then again, maybe nothing’s happened.   Maybe the rest of the world has been waiting for America to move into the next news cycle before breaking their big stories on November 5th.  Well, that’s not how we do things at Fathead.  A silly ol’ election isn’t going to stop us from giving fans what they REALLY want.  No, not Obama Girl.  I’m talking about a reason to start your holiday shopping a little early this year, because…

Fathead’s REAL.BIG. Buy 1, Get 1 Free Sale Is Back!!!
If you’ve been a Fathead fan as long as there have been Fathead wall graphics, then you probably remember our first BOGO (that’s Buy One, Get One) sale.  Okay, we actually did one last year too.  But THIS Buy 1, Get 1 sale is even better because it’s more like the sale we had our first year in business.  That means fewer restrictions and more bang for your buck.  Not to mention WAY more products to choose from than that first year.   Get your holiday shopping out of the way now because Fathead’s REAL.BIG. Buy 1, Get 1 Free Sale is on NOW! Click here to start shopping!

Holiday Gift Wheel: Win a Free Fathead
Since our Holiday Gift Wheel has been live (a week, give or take), we’ve given away 18 FREE REAL.BIG. Fathead wall graphics!  Not to mention a ton of other sweet prizes like FREE Fathead Tradeables, Free Shipping and discounts galore!  It’s easy to play and almost hard to lose (but it does happen…and if it happens to you, please accept my apologies).  Like any great game – the important thing is that you have fun playing and, win or lose, be a good sport.  Click here to play.

Furniture For Fans
Stick those vinyl folding chairs back in the garage where they belong – tailgatin’ season doesn’t start for another ten months!  Fans, you don’t have to use your outdoor furniture indoors anymore.  If you want your favorite team’s logo on your furniture, that is.  Fathead presents…Furniture for Fans.  Three luxurious leather recliners for you to choose from – team-themed to suit your passion – are now on sale at Fathead.com.  Settle into one of these babies and you’ll feel like you’re the team owner kicking back in the executive suite at the stadium.  Except you’ll be in the comfort of your own home watching game after game after game…after game after game…after game!  Click here to check ‘em out!

Presidential Candidate Wall Graphics
News Flash: Fathead has completely sold out of Barack Obama wall graphics!  And McCain wall graphics are going fast too!  That’s right, McCain fans – drop your electoral college calculators and put your money where your vote will be!  Click here to get your McCain wall graphic while they’re hot!