Daily Archives: October 3, 2004

2004 Weekly local football review

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Texans 30 Raiders 17. With the Stros winning the Wild Card playoff spot at the Juice Box downtown, the Texans did their part at Reliant Stadium to make Sunday a very good day for Houston sports fans. David Carr easily had his best game of the season as he was 14-22 for 238 yards, one TD pass in finding Andre Johnson as a secondary receiver on the play, no interceptions or fumbles, and 35 yards rushing on 8 carries. The Texans offensive line played well, protecting Carr sturdily and allowing third team running back Jonathan Wells to run for 105 yards. On the defensive side, the Texans were able to turn a Jamie Sharper sack into a TD and, while they did not ever really stop the Raiders’ offense, they did pick off three Kerry Collins‘ passes and force two fumbles. The high-scoring Vikings come to town next Sunday, so the Texans’ defense better plug the holes or else the Texans offense may need to score 40 just to stay in the game. Will the over/under on that game break 60?
Longhorns 44 Baylor 14. The Horns endured their final scrimmage of the pre-season before the real season begins next weekend in Dallas against Oklahoma. Although the Arkansas win from three weeks ago was a solid one, the three other teams that the Horns have played are not remotely comparable to Oklahoma’s talent level. Similarly, Oklahoma’s only reasonably tough game to date was this past weekend’s win over Texas Tech, which was not particularly impressive. So, to a certain extent, next week’s Red River Shootout will involve two talented, but largely unproven, teams. Although I think the addition of Dick Tomey to UT’s defensive coaching staff will improve that unit, I’m not sure that the improvement will be sufficiently developed at this stage of the season for the Horns to hold the Sooners under 28 points, which I think is a requirement of beating them. And the Horns still have to figure out now to deal with the fact that the Sooners head coach Bob Stoops is a far superior game day tactician to UT’s head coach Mack Brown.
Texas Aggies 42 Kansas State 30. This was a strange game. The Aggies really never stopped Kansas State, but four Wildcat turnovers allowed the Ags to have a short field for several of their scoring drives. Moreover, the Wildcats were behind for much of the game by double figures, so they abandoned their potent rushing attack behind Darren Sproles, despite the fact that it appeared to be working quite well. Nevertheless, with two and a half minutes to go, the Wildcats were driving the ball in Aggie territory and down only 35-30. Then, the KSU coaching staff inexplicably makes several questionable play calls and, for one of the only times in the game, the Aggie defense holds and KSU turns the ball over on downs with a minute and a half to go. As the Ags are running out the clock, Reggie McNeal takes off around left end and scoots 62 yards for a TD to put the game away. The Ags travel to Ames, Iowa next Saturday to play the Iowa State Cyclones, who are coached by my old friend Dan McCarney.
Memphis 41 Houston 14. On their way to a 1-6 record, the Coogs lay an egg against a good Memphis team. The problem with junk offenses such as the one the Coogs run is that, once the opposition’s defensive coordinators have seen it, they make adjustments and force the offense to do something else. If the junk offense does not have something else that it can do well, then it gets ugly in a hurry, and that’s where the Coogs find themselves now. Art Briles‘ second season is quickly turning into a rocky one. The Coogs play Southern Miss next on this week’s ESPN Thursday night football.
San Jose State 70 Rice 63. When I first heard this score, I thought that Rice’s basketball season had started early. The Owls uncharacteristically blew leads of 34-7 and 63-49, and somehow figured out a way to lose despite gaining 634 yards. In case the Owls had any doubts that their decision to move to Conference USA is the correct one, the attendance at this game was only 4,000, which means that this game drew less than a large number of Texas high school football games each week. Rice plays SMU next Saturday night at Rice Stadium.
And remember that Kevin Whited has the best weekly review of Big 12 games over at PubliusTx.net.

Stros 2004 Review: A playoff drive for the ages

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The Stros charged into the playoffs on Sunday afternoon with their 18th consecutive home victory by beating the Colorado Rockies 5-3 to win the National League WildCard playoff spot.
The win capped an incredible late season turnaround for the Stros, who were a season-worst 56-60 on Aug. 14. From that point on, the Stros won 36 out of their next 46 games, which included a 12 game winning streak. They then closed the season out in a tight race with the Giants and Cubs by winning nine out of their last 10 and their final seven straight. The Stros now go to Atlanta for Game One of the National League Division Series on Wednesday against the Braves, who have eliminated Houston three times in the past seven postseasons. The first playoff game in Houston will be next Saturday, October 9.
Brandon Backe filled in admirably on Sunday for the ailing Roger Clemens, who came down with a stomach virus last night and could not pitch today as expected. Backe — who slept in today thinking that Clemens was starting and thus, did not learn that he was starting until a couple of hours before game time — pitched five strong innings and drove in the Stros’ first two runs.
After closer Brad Lidge‘s final pitch in the ninth, the Stros ran out of the dugout to meet near the mound for hugs and high-fives while red and white confetti rained down on the fans from the Juice Box roof.
Assuming he recovers from his stomach virus, Clemens is scheduled to pitch game one of the division series against the Braves, with Roy O slated to start game two. I will break down the matchup between the Stros and the Braves in a post in the next day or so.

“We’ll Getcha & Mangle Ya”

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New York-based Weil, Gotshal & Manges is a major international law firm that is particularly well-known in bankruptcy and reorganization circles. The firm is counsel for the debtors-in-possession in both the Enron and MCI/WorldCom reorganization cases, which are two of the largest chapter 11 cases in history. Over the past 20 years, Weil has built upon its reorganization expertise to become a well-regarded and well-balanced full service firm.
However, the firm’s nickname within the legal profession — which is the title of this post — makes fun of the firm’s traditionally high fees charged to its clients, and this New York Sunday Times article reports on two pending lawsuits against the firm that reflect another image problem at Weil and other big law firms — i.e., that the firm is more incentivized to make money than to protect the interests of its clients:

Weil Gotshal is embroiled in two lawsuits by former clients who contend that the firm breached its duty to provide them with its undivided loyalty, as state rules on ethics require. The cases – one by the owners of a luxury shop, now defunct, in the Mall at Short Hills, N.J., and one by the pop singer Michael Bolton – stem from very different circumstances. But each case is a cautionary tale for big law firms, experts say.

The fashion boutique’s allegations against Weil are particularly troubling:

[The owners of] Fashion Boutique of Short Hills [are pursuing] their contention that the law firm represented them in a suit against the fashion house Fendi even as it also agreed to represent Prada in another case. A few months earlier, Prada had teamed up with LVMH Mˆet Hennessy Louis Vuitton to buy a 51 percent stake in Fendi.
Weil Gotshal did not tell the owners, Annette C. Fischer and her daughter, Randi Fischer, that it was also representing Fendi’s new owner until seven months after it started working with Prada; by then, a jury was already deliberating the Fischers’ contention that Fendi had used unfair business practices to run them out of business to protect its new flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. In the case against Weil Gotshal, Fashion Boutique is seeking $15.5 million, an estimate of the value of lost business.

Despite these troubling allegations, Weil, Gotshal is not shying away from the fight — the firm has asserted a counterclaim against the firm’s former clients in the Fashion Boutique lawsuit for $2.7 million in unpaid attorneys’ fees.
And Mr. Bolton’s allegations against the firm stem from the firm’s attempt to represent the conflicting interests of co-defendants who have potential claims against each other if the claim against them is established:

Mr. Bolton . . . sued Weil Gotshal in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan last December, seeking $30 million. The firm had defended him, along with his publisher, Warner-Chappell Music Ltd. of Britain, and his record label, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., in a 1994 suit contending that Mr. Bolton had infringed someone else’s copyright with his 1991 hit “Love Is a Wonderful Thing.” When a jury found that the song was too much like a 1964 tune of the same name by the Isley Brothers, [Mr. Bolton and the other defendants] were ordered to pay more than $5 million in damages. Mr. Bolton, however, soon learned that he was personally responsible for the entire judgment because his contracts with both Warner-Chappell and Sony said that he would indemnify them in the event of a judgment of copyright infringement.

Expect both of these cases against Weil to be resolved or settled before trial. If Weil cannot resolve the cases through summary judgment, then the firm will not risk allowing a jury to tabulate the damages against the firm. Jurors tend to get out their calculators when assessing damages against a law firm defendant.