There has been a lot of ink dedicated to an assessment of Rush Limbaugh's performance on the Sunday pre-game show on ESPN. In fact, Rush is getting more publicity from that appearance than he has for just about anything else he has said or done in the past two years. Frankly, I thought he was neither wonderful nor horrible. He did a short commentary on hiring minority coaches that was very bland and had no new insights that I could discern. He jumped into some “conversations” among the regulars on the show including one where Michael Irvin was suggesting that Jeremy Shockey might be outsmarting the media and gathering all this attention as a way to market himself. Limbaugh said that Shockey was not outsmarting anyone.
Another exchange showed that if the folks on the show cover each and every outcome, they have to be right. The regulars were talking about how the release of Lawyer Milloy might have a mental effect on the Pats. I think it was Steve Young who said that the Pats were emotionally flat. Rush jumped in saying that the Pats were professionals and would leave that behind them in the locker room. Rush said, "They're [the Pats] going to win today.” It would have been hard for the game to produce an outcome that was not covered here.
After two sessions on the pre-game show, my assessment of Rush Limbaugh there is that his presence is like a circle. It's pointless.
On one of the other myriad ESPN studio shows, Bryan Cox is part of the broadcast team. I hope the people in charge of putting that show on don't try to “kick up the energy level” because Cox has been known to be just a little on the “excitable” side of the ranch. I can see him getting into an argument with one of the others on the set. Cox jumps out of his seat and does a “Terry Tate, office linebacker” move on his co-host and then flips a double bird to the director and cameraman. I am not a TV professional; but at that point, I believe the desired outcome would be “fade to black”…
On the other hand, Cox may be the perfect person for coverage of those silly X-Games events. If he went ballistic in that venue, he would fit right in.
Dolphins' RB, Ricky Williams, has a son named Prince. Normally, the father of a boy named Prince is called King. Imagine the confusion that could arise in a few years if Prince gets a dog and names it King…
I read an article that said that the Packers' season ticket waiting list was 200,000 people long. I wonder if that is an error; I did not know that there were that many people in Green Bay. Whatever. But can you imagine the temptation they would have to follow the lead of the Jets and charge folks $50 to stay on the list? That is $10M per year in potential revenue; and with a list as long as that, some of the folks might stay on that list for 40 years.
If you want to play on the offensive line in the NFL these days, you probably need to weigh 300 lbs or more. If you are less than 300 lbs, you are probably the runt of the litter. With that backdrop, the NFL has announced that it will make a seven-figure donation to an organization called “Action for Healthy Kids” and that sounds just wonderful. When you take the time to read the fine print, you will find that one of the key objectives of “Action for Healthy Kids” is to fight juvenile obesity. Money talks…
Here is your latest Detroit Tigers update. The Tigers are the third team in baseball history to have 100 losses by 1 September. The 1962 Mets – still a paragon of futility – hit that mark. The other team to accomplish that feat was the Cleveland Spiders in 1899.
Last week, Joe Torre said that managing the Yankees was no longer fun. Imagine if you gathered up Joe Torre and Alan Trammel and Larry Bowa and Mike Hargrove and Lloyd McClendon and took them all on a weekend retreat. Dr. Phil could have a field day with this group; by the time they went home, Torre might be really happy to go back to NY and take a call from The Boss.
Here is a subtle indicator that MLS is still a minor backwater in the world of soccer. The DC United team is trying to sign – and is very excited about their prospects for signing – a Brazilian striker, Thiago Martins. However, those of us who are cognoscenti within the soccer world realize that he can't possibly be any good. All the good Brazilian players have only one name.
I continue to try to become conversant with the world of NASCAR so that The NASCAR Babe will not think I am as dumb as a gate hinge when we go to Dover for whatever that race is called. I just learned that the NASCAR Pooh-Bahs have handed out suspensions and probations to a bunch of folks – drivers and crew people – for “actions detrimental to stock car racing”. When I saw that, I wondered if some people were caught reading books without pictures at the track. No such luck. There was another fight in the pit area. One driver was nudged from behind by second driver and wound up hitting the wall. So he drove into the pit row and rammed the side of the car of the second driver and some of his crewmembers started banging on the hood of driver #2's car. If this kind behavior is as commonplace as it seems to be, I hope that the NASCAR folks have metal detectors to screen the folks who are down in the pits. If any of those folks are packing, we might see a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral one of these days.
The University of Maryland lost its last four games to Florida State by a total of 137 points – 34 points per game. Last weekend they lost to Florida State by a score of 35-10. I wonder if that will be characterized as an improvement in next year's media guide?
Finally, one of the late cuts by the Chargers was a kicker named Mackenzie Hoambrecker. This guy needs a name change; how is he going to get a date if he has to go up to a woman in a bar and say his name is Hoambrecker? That's not going to work. He should change his name to Mackenzie Widowmaker. That would be a whole lot better.
But don't get me wrong, I love sports...
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