For those of you who still believe that the world of sports is somehow above all of the economic turmoil, please consider:
A. The man who owns the Montreal Canadians of the NHL and who also owns a 50% stake in the Liverpool FC of the Barclay English Premier League has just hired an investment bank to help him “restructure his assets”. He is looking to get out. Both of these teams are iconic within their sport with significant numbers of loyal fans.
B. The name of an athlete on a automobile dealership is insufficient to keep a dealership afloat these days. Deuce McAllister owns a Nissan dealership in Alabama and it had to file for bankruptcy protection because Nissan says that McAllister’s dealership owes the carmaker almost $7M for inventory that it was never paid for. The fact that McAllister is an “out of work running back” at the moment does make this situation any the better.
C. According to reports, Rutgers’ appearance in last year’s bowl game – - the classic PapaJohn’s.com Bowl – - resulted in a net loss to the university athletic department. Supposedly, the school is out $180K on the deal. Secondarily, one might want to ask just what the school spent money on such that it could lose $180K for playing a football game.
D. Why else would John McEnroe want to “challenge” men to discuss their prostate health when the sponsor’s website clearly states, “John McEnroe does not suffer from, nor take medication for, Enlarging Prostate”?
It has been more than a while since my kids were young enough to watch Sesame Street; so I have not tuned in for a while either. However, I wonder if the folks at Children’s Television Workshop have adapted to the current economic climate. If so, then maybe I should tune in to see how they are demonstrating the meaning and the reality of negative numbers to youngsters. I feel sorry for The Count; he probably has had to learn an entirely new skill – - counting down instead of always counting up.
At the NFL owners’ meeting, Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, lifted the gag order he had placed on Coach Wade Phillips. Folks, our long national nightmare is over. Once again, we will have the opportunity to listen to Wade Phillips share his thoughts and wisdom with us. Are you taking notes…?
During the NFL off-season, quarterback controversies have filled many a void for NFL beat writers and columnists over the years. The Jay Cutler/Josh McDaniel soap opera is clearly at center stage this year but here are two comments from sports columnists that will keep you abreast of QB happenings elsewhere:
“Luke McCown, telling the St. Petersburg Times that the Bucs don’t need to pursue the Jay of Sunshine: ‘I have an opportunity to prove that I’m the franchise guy they’re looking for.’ Let me guess. The reality check got lost in the mail. . . . [Jim Armstrong, Denver Post]
“The 49ers’ looming quarterback duel reminds me of my lunch dilemma as I peer glumly into the fridge: Chopped liver or leftover meat loaf?.” [Scott Ostler, SF Chronicle]
The NCAA wants to strip the Florida State football team of 14 wins based on the fact that they used ineligible players. That act would reduce Bobby Bowden’s total number of wins by more than a full season’s worth and that has generated a huge kerfuffle at the university and among its followers who think that such an act would be hugely unfair to Bobby Bowden. In all of their protestations about the injustice of it all, no one ever seems to mention that this has been the fate of every other coach and school that has been caught using ineligible players.
Interestingly – - at least to me – - is that the players were declared ineligible because they cheated on exams taken in an online music course rendering those course grades invalid and thereby creating the ineligibility peril. Obviously, Bobby Bowden did not do the cheating or tell the kids to cheat or demonstrate to them how they might cheat in that course. Nevertheless, in taking up for the goodness of Bobby Bowden here, the university president, T.K. Weatherall, seems not to be academically offended in any way that his bastion of higher learning has admitted scholar-athletes who found it necessary to cheat in an online music course.
When I was in college, a few courses were widely known to be the courses one should take when one needed to kick one’s GPA up a notch. These cupcakes were courses where you had to work hard to get a grade below a B. One such course was Music 5 – - or as it was known around campus, “Tunes for Goons”. If your IQ was above the freezing point, there was no need to cheat in that course…
Lost in the rhetorical flourishes about what is just and proper here is an interesting irony. If my calculations are correct, in the year that these scholar-athletes were cheating in a music course in order to stay eligible to play football, the Florida State team only managed to finagle an invitation to – - wait for it – - the Music City Bowl. [insert rim-shot here…]
Finally, here is a comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:
“The University of Florida is seeking permission from the state to allow certain alumni to be buried on campus. Cannot confirm that the first alumni to be buried will be those who fail to meet donation pledges.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…