Kansas vs Kansas State
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Dress Comfortably For The Links
All I know is that it's pretty sweet he sported the gray hoodie on the links. You stay frumpy, Bill.
Meanwhile, Bill Murray took it to the "next level" on Bushwood un-approved attire with his "full camo" sniper outfit. Lovely. And Chris Berman's Nutri-System Endorsement is proving to be worth every penny for the diet company.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Bitch
The wonders of Lebron James and his fragile ego, continue to amaze.
This guy's skin isn't just thin, it is diaper rash sensitive, 24-7-365.
Lebron tweeting like a giddy-fanboy over Blake Griffin's dunk over Kendrick Perkins was bad enough. I mean, really, dude. For a guy who - I believe - won't enter the NBA slam dunk contest out of mortal fear he won't win, what good does it do for your image to be whooping it up on your Blackberry like this?
Mark Kriegel, writing for FoxSports.com, has a theory. And I think he's dead on.
Let me tell you, again, what LBJ (another acronym offered without irony or any deference to the past) really needs. It’s not connecting with his fans. It’s a title. He needs one more than any athlete I know.
Now you show me a ballplayer who talks about being persecuted, I’ll show you a guy who wants to be a victim. Being picked on is an excuse. It’s another form of plausible deniability.
It was Kendrick's way of calling James unprofessional, or worse, dismissing him as a fan, another guy oohing, aahing and tweeting over a dunk.
The highlight reel euphoria obscured a couple of facts. First, Perkins hit Griffin hard and high. Second, Griffin had to literally throw the ball in the basket, a play that perhaps only he could make. In other words, all things considered, Perkins played pretty good help defense.
Then again, help defense is a team concept. It’s a subtlety lost on giants of the tweeting classes.
Perkins was willing to risk humiliation to make the proper basketball play. I don’t believe James would risk as much. He’s a Nike commercial. He always looks cool. Just the same, it’s worth reminding you he’s proclaimed himself a King, though he has no title.Boom, roasted.
Meanwhile, let's take the ol' "Wayback Machine" for a spin, and remember what happens when LeBron gets posterized, even in an obscure, off-season Nike Camp.
Ryan Miller, who videotaped the dunk and had his tape confiscated, detailed the events to CBSSports.com.
"[Nike Basketball senior director Lynn Merritt] just said, 'We have to take your tape,' " Miller said. "They took it from other guys, too."
Miller, who is a freelancer, was at the camp in part for ESPNU. He also was getting material for Syracuse.com. Miller, who attended Syracuse, had been part of ESPNU's Campus Connection program, which uses college students to report on various sports events at their campuses. The tape that was confiscated belonged to Miller, not ESPN, and he is not an ESPN employee.
Miller said he had been filming all day and had his tapes confiscated only after Crawford's dunk over James.
"LeBron called Lynn over and told him something," Miller told CBSSports.com. "That's how I knew his name was Lynn. LeBron said, 'Hey, Lynn. Come here.' "
Minutes later, Miller said Merritt demanded his tape.
"There's nothing I can think of besides LeBron just not wanting it online," Miller told CBSSports.com. "It's a good story to tell people, I guess. But then again, I'm kind of pissed. I lost my tape."Here's the dunk footage. Only 1.2 MILLION views and counting. Watch it a few times yourself to pump up the hit counter, just to further piss off Queen James.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The Hall of 44 Horribly Biased (and Increasingly Irrelevant) Sportswriters
The results, were predictably, less than satisfying to many.
Among the perceived "snubs", coach Bill Parcells and defense end Charles Haley were left out this year. Perhaps they will get in next year. Or maybe never. The logic of why a guy is not worthy one year, but then worthy the next year, or perhaps 7 years or more later, remains one of the great mysteries of the process.
I won't get into the merits or critiques of this year's inducted class - that's a robust discussion you can have with your buddies over a beer - but rather let me once again highlight the sheer stupidity of the PROCESS involved.
To begin with, allowing just 44 voices to determine a man's life work in the game is absurdly small. Let's bump that up to 100 as a start, and keep an open mind to adding even more if needed.
Secondly, take a look at how un-inspiring this list of writers really is. I mean, how many of these people have you heard of?
Many of these writers, have lost their full time newspaper job years ago. I don't want to name names, because this is not a personal attack on them (or their relative football acumen). But I know the guys in that room, who are NOT currently practicing full-time NFL writers. They should no longer be on the panel.
Also, you will see a small handful of TV broadcasters on this list. I don't object to that, per se. However, I maintain that it's absurd to not include some long time sports radio talk show hosts on the committee. I would not volunteer myself, because I understand my own biases. But sports talk radio hosts are, in my opinion, especially suited to HOF arguments, because we HAVE THEM ALL THE TIME in the course of our regular work.
It'll be a cold day in hell, before they let in an unwashed "sports talk radio host" into this little enclave. Better to have a former beat writer, from a 50,000 circulation paper that is now just a website, to help decide if Bill Parcells deserves a bronze bust in Canton.
My buddy, and now (wait for it....) FELLOW SPORTS RADIO colleague Thom Loverro - himself a former major market newspaper columnists (although he still does fine work for a smaller, free paper here in Washington, the D.C. Examiner) tried to ZING me by saying "how about sports radio hosts who ACTUALLY GO INTO THE LOCKEROOM AND TALK TO PLAYERS AND COACHES."
Oooh. Burn. Not really.
Thom actually makes a great point in my favor on this one. By NOT going into the lockeroom as frequently (or ever) as writers, we are not subject to the negative bias of many writers who have felt the sting of rejection from certain players.
We don't hold grudges, because we have no grudges to hold.
So what if Parcells was a liar, a bully and a tyrant to the scribes who covered him? The guy built NFL teams from the ground up, proved innovative in big games, and bequeathed a tree of assistants that is legendary. So what if Charles Haley was a borderline sociopath and mostly un-cooperative to the press? The guy has 5 rings and terrorized offenses. I'd love to see/hear/read the 44 electors "rationale" for why Chris Doleman belongs ahead of him.
If you are on the committee, you should be required to divulge your votes on each nominee, and not just "up" or "down." I would require each selector to write a concise 1 paragraph explanation of their vote. At least lets see their "logic" and let it stand on it's own. If you can't take the hate mail, hate tweets, or general "heat" of a strong opinion, then get out of the room. It's that simple.
Finally, there should be a price for being on this committee. As it currently stands, the committee meets conveniently during Super Bowl week, where there is essentially zero cost to the members. Take a few hours out of your week, haggle over inductees, turn in your votes, go have a steak dinner on your employers' per diem.
Nice work, if you can get it.
I would hold this annual meeting outside of the Super Bowl week, and I would require members to pay for their own travel and accommodations. If it matters that much for you to be on this committee, then you should put some money behind it.
See how quickly the room clears out once you do that.
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