Daily Archives: November 28, 2004

2004 Weekly local football review

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Texans 31 Titans 21. My younger son and I went to the Texans game today with a couple of friends and we all enjoyed an entertaining game. The Texans began the game in a coma and found themselves trailing 21-3 midway through the second quarter as Titans’ QB Steve McNair sliced and diced the Texans’ secondary. The Texans then pieced together their only drive of the first half to narrow the score to 21-10, but still looked overmatched as they could not stop McNair’s pinpoint passing. Then, seemingly without reason, the Texans offense woke up in the third quarter, David Carr began to look like a top level NFL QB, and the Texans’ defense started getting pressure on McNair. Before you knew it, the Texans had scored two TD’s to take the lead 24-21. The remainder of the game pretty much involved the Texans playing it close to the vest on offense while defending furiously against the Titans’ fourth quarter thrusts. Finally, a McNair fumble and interception in the fourth quarter thwarted the Titans’ final drives, and then the Texans’ Domanick Davis ran in a late TD from 41 yards to seal the victory for the hometown crew. The bottomline on this one was that the Texans’ offensive line did a much better job of establishing a running attack for Davis and in protecting Carr, and that’s the primary reason that the Texans (now 5-6 on the season) were able to beat the former Oilers for the second time this season. Next week’s game for the Texans is at the Meadowlands against the Jets.
Dallas 21 Chicago 7. After a horrid first half display from both teams that almost set back NFL offenses from several decades of development, the Pokes’ Vinnie Testaverde made the first of what will likely in coming weeks be several appearances in relief of current Cowboys savior Drew Henson and engineered two second half drives to secure the win for the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. Henson — who curiously has gotten rich off of unrealized potential in both professional baseball and professional football — stunk in his first start for the Pokes, going 4 of 12 for 31 yards with 1 interception that was run back 45 yards for a Chicago TD. Thus, in his first outing, Henson passed for more yardage and touchdowns to the other team than his own. The 4-7 Cowboys go to Seattle for the Monday Night game next week against the Seahawks. The Texans have a real chance of finishing this season with a better record than the Cowboys, which would not go over well with Pokes’ owner Mr. Jones at Valley Ranch.
Texas Longhorns 26 Texas Aggies 13. In a game that was not as close as the score indicates, the Horns calmed down after a first half near-disaster to pound the Aggies into submission in the second half and come away with their fifth straight win in the storied series between the two programs. The Horns were about ready to take a 13-7 lead at the end of the first half when Texas QB Vince Young had a brain fart and fumbled the ball while attempting to stretch his arm over the goal line. Aggie safety Jonte Buhl picked up the fumble and raced 98 yards for an Aggie TD and a stunning 13-7 Aggie lead at halftime, which did not go over well with the Horns. That incident appeared to make the Longhorns downright ornery as the Horns’ defense suffocated Aggie QB Reggie McNeal in the second half, holding the Aggie offense to a total of about 60 yards total offense. In one series during the fourth quarter, Texas took complete control of the line of scrimmage and sacked the elusive McNeal on three straight plays before the exasperated Aggie QB threw an interception on the fourth play. Meanwhile, Young and Cedric Benson kept pounding on the overworked Aggie defense and methodically scored 19 second half points to put the game away. The 10-1 Horns now await the outcome of the league championship games, but it is looking more and more like the best Texas team of the Mack Brown era will again miss out on a Bowl Championship Series game on New Year’s Day. That’s a shame, became this Horns team — particularly its fast and strong defense — is pretty darn good. The Aggies look like they are headed for the Holiday Bowl in San Diego against Arizona State for the Ags’ first bowl game in three seasons.
Louisiana Tech 51 Rice 14. Rice’s disappointing season ended on Monday night in a 51-14 loss to Louisiana Tech before a “crowd” of friends and family members of 8,317 at Reliant Stadium. The Owls finished with a record of 3-8 on the season.
The 3-8 Houston Cougars’ season finished last week (mercifully).
And finally, don’t miss Kevin Whited’s final Big 12 wrap-up.

More on the wild world of Equatorial Guinea

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The latest news from the wild world of Equatorial Guinea is not good for Mark Thatcher, the son of former English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Here are the previous posts on this lurid affair. Movie rights to be sold soon.

UAL, we have a big problem

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Most of news over the past two years about the United Airlines chapter 11 case has focused on the legacy airlines operating losses, its unfunded pension obligations, and its need to overhaul or reject its collective bargaining agreements. Here is a series of posts on those various issues.
So, United has established that a legacy airline can lose money for a long time while floundering in chapter 11. However, can United continue meandering in chapter 11 without aircraft? Look at this seemingly innocuous press release that United issued late this past Friday:

A U.S. federal bankruptcy court judge has blocked a group of creditors from repossessing up to 14 airplanes from UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, saving the bankrupt carrier tens of millions of dollars.
Judge Eugene Wed off issued a temporary restraining order Friday barring the group, represented by the Chicago-based law firm Chapman & Cutler LLP, from seizing up to eight Boeing 767s and six 737s.
The group of financiers, which controls about one-third of United’s fleet, had threatened to seize the planes as early as Dec. 1 because of an impasse over their leases.
United, the nation’s No. 2 airline, is seeking to lower aircraft operating costs by renegotiating its leases with creditors. However, it argued that the Chapman group was violating antitrust laws by renegotiating as a bloc instead of as individual leaseholders, forcing United to accept higher lease rates.

Well, you say, what’s so unusual about that? Secured creditors in chapter 11 cases are automatically stayed from repossessing their collateral until they petition the Bankruptcy Court to modify the automatic injunction under Bankruptcy Code section 362 to allow them to exercise their contractual rights. Isn’t the Bankruptcy Judge simply enforcing the stay against United’s aircraft lenders?
Not exactly. Aircraft collateral is treated differently under the Bankruptcy Code than other types of collateral (financial institutions that make aircraft loans lobby well in Congress). Under section 1110 of the Bankruptcy Code, the above-described TRO is on quite shaky grounds:

(a)(1) . . . , the right of a secured party with a security interest in [aircraft] equipment, . . . or of a lessor or conditional vendor of such equipment, to take possession of such equipment in compliance with a security agreement, lease, or conditional sale contract, and to enforce any of its other rights or remedies, under such security agreement, lease, or conditional sale contract, to sell, lease, or otherwise retain or dispose of such equipment, is not limited or otherwise affected by any other provision of this title or by any power of the court.

In plain English, that says “a bank that has aircraft collateral cannot be enjoined from repossessing and selling its collateral in a chapter 11 case.” Section 1110 goes on to provide that the only limitation on an aircraft lender’s collateral rights is during the first 60 days of the chapter 11 case and that the debtor must cure any defaults under its agreement with the aircraft lender if the debtor wants to continue using the aircraft that is collateral for the lender’s loans to the debtor.
Consequently, it looks like the financial institutions that control a third of United’s fleet have had enough. As United’s management, unions, and other parties-in-interest continue to fiddle while Rome burns, I wonder whether they have examined pro formas on operating an airline without a substantial portion of its aircraft fleet? Inasmuch as the Bankruptcy Court’s decision to approve a TRO in the face of section 1110 is almost certainly in error, United’s dithering parties-in-interest better get ready to deal with a few less aircraft sooner rather than later.