Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Trending Money

Remember recently when TigerBlog was talking about movies?

As a quick refresher, TigerBlog wrote about "Casablanca," which is his favorite movie ever, and then later about how there are movies you see for the first time and somebody says "you never saw such-and-such?"

So how did TigerBlog not realize that there was an episode of "Gilmore Girls" in which Lorelei invites Luke over to watch a movie and when he says he's never seen it, she replies: "you never saw Casablanca?"

How in the world did he not remember that? Fortunately for TB, he was reminded of it yesterday, when he stumbled on that episode. It's a good one.

Lorelei invites Luke over for movie night. This is before they ever got together. And Rory goes on her first date at Yale.

As for "Casablanca," the opening credits and a few scenes are shown. TB actually saw the movie himself about a day or so after he wrote about it. He has no idea how many times he's seen it, but he's pretty sure he's seen it more than he has any other movie.

It's possible "A Christmas Story" is second on that list, though he had no interest in the live TV version the other night.

Anyway, there it was yesterday, "Casablanca" on "Gilmore Girls." Who would have imagined?

While he was stumbling onto things yesterday, he also saw an unlikely person was trending on Twitter. It was Marc Ross.

Is the name familiar? If your two favorite football teams are the same as TigerBlog's, then you know who he is.

Those teams would be Princeton, where Ross was an All-Ivy wide receiver, and the Giants, Ross' employer for more than a decade. And there he was yesterday, trending on Twitter.

TigerBlog was actually hoping he'd click and see that Ross had left the Giants to become an GM for an NFL team. As it turns out, Ross was interviewed for the vacant GM job with the Giants.

Ross is the current VP for Player Evaluation. He helped build the last two Super Bowl championship teams that the franchise has won in a major way, with his talent for judging talent, as it were.

Now that former GM Jerry Reese has been fired, Ross became the first to interview for the position.

It puts Ross in a tough spot. On the one hand, he's obviously a known to the organization and a person with a proven history of success. At 44 and with more than 20 years experience, he's at the stage of his career where he's ready to be the head man for a team.

On the other hand, the team just fired Reese, and it's hard for Ross to get out of Reese's shadow. Memories being what they are, it's also more likely that he had to explain the current team's 2-12 record rather than how he helped win two Super Bowls.

If the Giants want TB's help, he can tell him that they need look no further than the person they just interviewed.

Ross is one of the most impressive people TigerBlog has ever met. It's obvious from when you first meet him that he has a quality about him, and he's perfect for the position of an NFL GM.

Ross was a wide receiver and punt returner at Princeton. He averaged more than 20 yards per catch in the 1993 season, one of the few receiving records that wasn't obliterated by Jesper Horsted this past season. Ross also holds most of Princeton's punt return records as well.

In addition to being a football player, Ross was also one of the great student workers in Princeton Office of Athletic Communications history. Among other things, Ross would sit in the press section at basketball games at Jadwin and answer the phone when people called for scores.

Back then, the press section was actually in the middle on the side where the benches are, and it was up in one of the south sections, as opposed to press tables. Each game, Ross would sit there, answering the phones - a job that no longer exists - and making everyone laugh.

Since then, he's been back at Princeton several times, scouting players and visiting. Each time, it's great to see him.

His nickname back when he was a student worker was "Money." TB isn't sure exactly how he got it, though he's pretty sure it came from Kurt Kehl, TB's former OAC colleague.

Money is ready for a GM job. He's interviewed before when there have been openings. Maybe he needs to get away from the Giants, but TB doesn't think so. He also doesn't think the Giants are that far away from contending again, with the right person to call the shots.

TB is positive that's Marc Ross. There.

Done deal.

Money is your man.

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