Boat Raced

From the Desk of Eagles Outsider Barry Bowe

I was listening to Rickie Ricardo – one of my favorite WIP hosts – on Saturday night. He was discussing the upcoming Giants game the next day and its importance – or, more precisely, its lack thereof.

Would it be better if the Eagles lost and got a higher draft pick? Or won the game?

This discussion was, of course, back-shadowed by conversation regarding the firing of Chip Kelly earlier in the week – a firing I both laud and applaud. And then it was time for a sports update.

Rickie introduced the person doing the update as Tom “Don’t Call Me Chip” Kelly. And some of the first words out of his mouth were:

“Temple was boat-raced by Houston 77-50.”

The terminology “boat-raced” struck my eardrums like a clap of thunder. It wasn’t because the terminology was foreign to me. In fact, I’d heard it thousands of times. The person I’d heard use it was Tony Bruno. In fact, I’d heard Tony – and his minions – use “boat-raced” for decades.

So I immediately fired off a tweet to Tony:

“Boat-raced” must’ve sounded foreign to Rickie because he mentioned it immediately after he came back on the air. In fact, he inquired about it from Tom “Don’t Call Me Chip” Kelly – who said that “boat-raced” meant the same thing as administering a sound beating. Although he used a less-glowing term. Something like crushed or smashed. I forget which. But more forceful than beat.

When Rickie mentioned he’d never heard the term before, I awaited an attribution to Tony Bruno. It’s not like Tony’s a stranger to WIP. I could be wrong here, but I’m figuring – since “Don’t Call Me Chip” works at WIP – he’d probably heard Tony use the terminology in the past.

But no mention of hearing it from Tony Bruno.

OUTRAGE.

So I fired off a tweet to Rickie to fill him in:

(Tony, I apologize for the misspelling.)

As I kept listening to the show and going about my business, my phone soon signaled an incoming tweet:

Now, I don’t know this Big Dave. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never communicated with him in the past. But TheKingKillah obviously knew the derivation of “boat-raced” because he chimed right in.

Thanks for the independent corroboration, Big Dave.

I went back to my listening and going about my business. And then an hour or so later, another incoming tweet:

Directly from the horse’s mouth – and thanks for the clarification, Tony.

So that’s pretty much a wrap. There you go Rickie – and Tom “Don’t Call Me Chip” Kelly. Although Tony Bruno didn’t coin the term “boat-raced” – as he readily admits – he’s been using the rarely-used term for thirty years.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com, Barry Bowe is also the author of: