Kid Claiming To Be Fired For Wearing Denver Broncos Jersey, Actually Wasn’t Fired For That

I can’t feel bad for you, kid.

Nathaniel Wertz, 17, was fired by Odyssey 1 family entertainment in Tacoma, Washington for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey to work or, at least, that’s what he wants you to believe.

Odyssey 1 allows their employees to wear Seattle Seahawks jerseys on Sundays, Wertz showed up to work donning Broncos threads and was told to go home and change into a standard uniform.

Now this might seem kind of petty and Odyssey 1 probably should have just accepted it and let the kid get tortured by rabid Seahawks fans, but they didn’t really fire him for his selection of clothing. In the article on ESPN’s website, referencing KUSA-TV in Colorado, Wertz didn’t return to work. His father allegedly tried to call his son’s manager, but the phone was not answered and the son decided to stay home.

Hey, kid, that’s why you were fired. If you are sent home to change, you have one strike on you, and not showing back up is worth two strikes. Three strikes, you’re out.

Congratulations, you have your fifteen minutes of fame. You have your name on an article on ESPN that is titled ‘Teen Fired for Wearing Broncos Jersey’, even though you really weren’t. You were fired because you cried to Dad and Daddy apparently didn’t teach you work ethic.

ESPN, change your headline. Nathaniel Wertz, grow up.

Perfect NCAA Bracket Now Means a Billion Dollars

Think you know college basketball? Well, you could win a billion dollars for your smarts. I’m not kidding.

Renowned business man Warren Buffett has teamed up with Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and founder of Quicken Loans, to offer the contest. All that entrants have to do is get a perfect NCAA Tournament bracket. That’s all.

The USA Today says your odds are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to get a perfect bracket. That long number is 9.2 quintillion, so if you don’t fill out a perfect bracket, you will at least have that knowledge.

Although the chances of filling out a perfect bracket aren’t great, it’s worth a shot because the 20 closest entrants to perfection will receive $100,000, which has to go towards building a home, refinancing a home or remodeling a home, but still its $100,000.

Another catch is you have to be at least 21 years old and a U.S. citizen, so kids must steal their parents’ identities for one more thing on the internet.

Additionally, Gilbert will be donating a million dollars to nonprofits in Detroit and Cleveland to help education in the inner city which is pretty cool.

The bill more than likely will only end up being four million dollars, assuming no one that enters the tournament actually gets that billion dollars, two million will go to the 20 runner-ups and the other two million will go to charity.

Gilbert and Buffett can find the four million dollars in their couch cushions, so this really won’t be putting a crunch on either of their wallets. It’s a neat deal that will get people to Quicken Loans website and make us further forget about the Cavs actually not winning a championship before LeBron.

The press release was not typed in Comic Sans.

If It’s Meant To Be, It’s Going To Be… But We Need To Make Things Happen, Too

Life is full of mismatched clichés. The one that sticks in my mind right off the bat is ‘if it’s meant to be, it’s going to be’. Now, this cliché has many different off-shoots and various religious connections with it resulting in conversations about how much and what God controls. That’s a road I’m not going to walk down because people get mad when you talk about sex, politics and religion.

So leave the saying as ‘if it’s meant to be, it’s going to be’, it’s a good saying and something that I think most people would, at least, somewhat agree with. I think I do, it’s one of those things that keeps me up at night pondering what’s really going on out there. The statement/cliché is really bigger than just words, but more of a faith statement.

Whatever you faith might be, from fall on your knees every night in the blessed name of Jesus Christ to atheist, we all believe in different things. I personally believe ‘if it’s meant to be, it’s going to be’ and that probably comes from a personal off-shoot of ‘there is a reason for everything’, but I also believe that we can’t just sit around and wait for something ‘to be’.

We need to make things happen. We can’t just sit around and wait for what is meant to be to be handed to us in some type of charity or dumb luck. No, we need to go out into the world, whatever that world might be, and make a charge, make a stand and try to make what you want to happen actually happen.

Personally, I want to be everything in the world I can be. I want to be a writer, radio host, DJ, song writer, singer, late night TV host, comedian; I just want to be a lot of things. Chances are good that I’m not going to be all of those, hell, if I’m lucky I get to be three maybe four of those things. I believe that whatever I’m going to be, whatever path that I’m going to walk down in this world will present itself somehow, someway, someday. I also believe that I can better myself in all of those fields, in order to prepare myself for whatever does come.

I can go write more to better my writing, I can pick up more shifts at the radio station to shape my DJing, I can push myself to learn more guitar to become a better performer, I can write down five minutes of stand-up and find out how horrible I am, I can do  a lot of stuff.

Someday, it will all become clear to me what I’m going to do with my life; the scary part is that it might not even be one of the things I want to be now. I have faith that direction will come to me someday as a sign from God, a Facebook post, a moment of inspiration from a TV program or doing something ridiculous to impress a girl. It will happen, but what I need to do, and what we all need to do, is to prepare ourselves for whatever will come in our lives, so we can flourish when we are called to what we are meant to do.

I know the magic eight-ball that decides my fate will give me a life that is full of awesome experiences; I’m just waiting to see what color my eight-ball is.

New Details Emerge on Garth Brooks Comeback Tour

On Monday, we learned a little bit more about the up and coming Garth Brooks World Tour. In an email to his ‘Circle of Friends’ newsletter, it was announced that Garth will be heading to Ireland and Crooke Park on July 25 and 26 as the big symbolic kickoff event. The event in Dublin will be called ‘The Garth Brooks Comeback Special Event’.

GarthThe most interesting note that I found in the email/press release is the following quote from Garth, “Before we go back on tour in the Fall of 2014, I want to challenge myself, the band, and crew. In ’97, we were lucky enough to play Croke Park, the stadium was under construction. 130,000+ of some of the greatest fans in the world. I was quoted then as saying ‘When this stadium is finished, I would love to come back and try to fill it again…this time to the brink.’…and we’re back to do just that.”

The part that is most interesting to State-bound Garth fans is that the comeback tour will begin in the fall of 2014. I do not believe we have had a hint at when the tour was to begin, but now we know it’s going to be ‘Fall 2014’ and sometime after July 25 and 26.

It’s fun for Garth to kick it off back in Ireland, where he taped one of his awesome concert specials. On the marketing front, an insanely smart move by the marketing major from Oklahoma State University for a couple reasons; first, Ireland and the UK loves Garth Brooks, he’ll sell out that show in minutes with both UKers and fans from around the world. Second, starting his tour over in Ireland makes headlines and makes him even more wanted by US audiences. Seeing Garth perform in Ireland will only make his fans want to see him more in the US knowing it is jut mere weeks away. I wouldn’t be surprised if tickets for the rest of his tour go on sale on about July 27, with Dublin and Crooke Park majesty still burned in fans’ minds.

Richard Sherman’s Post Game Interview Was Awesome

Are your ears still ringing? If you answered yes then you probably were watching the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game and more specifically the Richard Sherman interview immediately after the game with Erin Andrews.

Now, this was right after Richard Sherman tipped a pass attempt into the end-zone heading towards Michael Crabtree which resulted in a game-sealing interception for Seattle.

There is a lot to complain about in this world, but this is not one of those things. Sherman was loud, but didn’t say anything controversial, derogatory or simply wrong. He was right and he sure does seem to be the best corner in the NFL.

It was nice to see emotion, true emotion, from a football player. He was loud and possibly annoying, but it wasn’t wrong. It was awesome.

Shout out to Erin Andrews for staying poised and asking a great follow-up question.

In a day of awesome football, it was a great way to top it off. And it was just the kind of thing the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell pray for every night.