A Weird Week In Sports News
Wednesday - September 15, 2010
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Just a random thought before we get started.
Who should be more upset that Sidney Crosby went yard while taking batting practice with the Pirates, hockey fans outside of the Steel City who long ago tired of the constant love butter spread on this guy, or Pittsburgh fans who realized the city’s best power hitter plays another sport?
Oh heck, let’s keep going.
* Kimbo Slice, who has gone 4-2 against MMA tomato cans, says he’s going to make his boxing debut this year - likely against yet another container of consume. The former street brawler told ESPN he’s “going to be a problem in the heavyweight division” and that he wants “to see what it’s like to break some ribs, break a jaw with one punch.”
One could question why anyone would care about this obvious publicity stunt, but a better topic of conversation would center on his plans to do something that Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Max Baer, Joe Lewis, Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ernie Shavers and Mike Tyson could not.
* Just in case you’re confused: Reggie Bush doesn’t give a damn if his Heisman gets taken away.
* The Colts say their current contract talks with quarterback Payton Manning have nothing to do with Tom Brady’s recent four-year, $78 million deal. Good. It should-n’t. It should be based on Eli Manning’s $15.2 million deal. To paraphrase Lloyd Benson: “Eli, we know Payton Manning ... and you’re no Payton Manning.”
* Mike Tyson ruined pay per view boxing. It just didn’t make sense to spend $60 for a 10-minute fight. But after watching Floyd Mayweather’s racist and ridiculous verbal video assault on Manny Pacquiao and his subsequent half-baked apology, add one more to the list of former pay-per-view participants who will pony up whatever it takes to see the congressman from the province of Sarangani take about 147 pounds of revenge from Money’s ubet.
* This just in from the Nick Saban school of athletic honesty: Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl, famed for his shirtless dedication to Pat Summitt and improper Erin Andrews feel-up, has admitted lying to NCAA investigators. Pearl, recalling the lesson he learned in grade school, told Associated Press, “I learned that it’s not OK to tell the truth most of the time, but you’ve got to tell the truth all of the time.”
Nice words of advice from the guy who put the brakes on his head-coaching career in 1988 when he ratted out Illinois for recruiting violations. The NCAA ruled the allegations were not true but was able to find other rules infractions.
And, this from the Mike Garrett school of administrative control: Tennessee announced it will dock Pearl $1.5 million in pay over a five-year period, reducing the head guy’s annual haul to a paltry $2 million.
* Two things we’re certain about when it comes to Brett Favre. The first is that he likes real ... comfortable ... jeans. The other is that he loves to play that game. We know this because his official web-site is titled “For the Love of the Game,” and because it has been drilled into our heads for 19 years. Well, maybe 18 years, since he spent the first season more concerned with bars than Bears.
But consider this. Is it sacrilege to consider that the reason Favre has yet to retire is because he loves the attention more than the competition? We know he hates training camp and didn’t complain when Brad Childress did the Hattiesberg kowtow. If he were a past-his-prime fighter and not the namesake for John Madden’s lasagna, we would know the answer. Consider this. The Favre-O-Meter on his web-site tracks pass attempts, completions, touchdowns, wins and yards thrown, but not interceptions and his wasted year in Atlanta. For the record, he has 318 INTs - or 41 more than George Blanda, who is No. 2.
* The biggest battle facing Boise State’s attempt to play for a national title will not be between the Broncos and any opponent, but among the voters. New age voters are already giving Boise first-place nods while the old school still grumbles about strength of schedule.
Whoever wins the argument will decide Boise’s fate.
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