Thursday, June 19, 2008

New catchphrase: pulling a Goosen

I imagine all of us have experienced that moment where you say something and very soon afterwards you really wish you could rewind things and edit it out. I certainly have. Well, Retief Goosen will now personify that kind of feeling for me forever. With the news of Tiger Woods impending ACL reconstruction surgery and the fact he just won the US Open with two stress fractures in his tibia as well, Goosen's claim that Tiger was "faking it" looks even more spectacularly stupid than it seemed at the time.

Think about it - what's the benefit of claiming Tiger was hamming it up, even if Goosen's right? At best, you have given the greatest player in the world extra motivation to beat you like a drum every time he sees you. If he's not, you look like a real jerk. Goosen's reasoning seems to have been that Woods mostly flinched after bad shots. Gee I don't know, Retief, is it possible that was because the pain is what CAUSED the bad shot? Nice logic, buddy. Maybe Retief got too deep in the Grey Goose again.

NBC has renewed their deal with Notre Dame though 2015. As long as the Peacock keeps enabling the school financially and the Big East keeps rolling over by allowing the non member Fighting Irish football team access to the conference's bowl bids, the most arrogant program in the country will continue to thumb their nose at everyone else.

I'm not too crazy about the Ivory Tower folks on the Knight Commission. Most of their reform suggestions are about as relevant as saying the clouds shoud all be made of vanilla ice cream. This might be different. There's no reason the NCAA couldn't increase its penalties in a meaningful way again. It's been quite a while since they really hammered someone - Alabama is the last one that springs to mind. If I was FSU or USC with high profile open investigations inolving my programs, I'd be a little anxious about this.

Cal's efforts to cut down 44 trees near their football stadium to expand their athletic facility continue to be unsuccessful. You might remember from the coverage of their game with Tennessee last year that a group of modern day hippies has been living in the trees to prevent them from being cut down. This week, the university is trying to dismantle their supply lines, but "Dumpster Muffin" will not go quietly! Looks like we could get more amusement from them this season.

Putting aside the fact that the "world's most expensive burger" is a Burger King PR stunt, from the description I don't think I'd even want to eat it. Give me a little cheese, some barbecue sauce and fresh tomatoes and I'm fine.

If I wanted to eat an insanely expensive burger, the Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas would be willing to accomodate me. (I have actually eaten a more normally priced burger there which was good.) I'm headed to Vegas tonight after my show, so I can't promise a blog tomorrow depending on my web access. I do want to make sure you know about the Little Bits of Honey dinner going on in Gainesville tomorrow night. It's a very good cause, Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer will be there and if I wasn't committed to travel elsewhere I would be as well. If you're in town, I encourage you to consider purchasing a ticket to this event.

1 comment:

Jeremiah said...

Well said, Heath. It was one thing for the media to question how injured Tiger was because Tiger didn't fully disclose the extent of his injury, leaving himself open to speculation and scrutiny. That's the price you pay for being a public figure. Retief Goosen making his idiotic opinions on the subject public is absolute lunacy. Not only does it accomplish nothing but piss Tiger off, alienate golf fans who'll NEVER let him forget at all future PGA events, and makes him look like a jealous, whiny bitch, but it shows a remarkable lack of understanding about the priorities all of these pseudo-elite golfers have. You want to know why Tiger destroys all of you routinely, even with one leg? Because he's not wasting time sharing his opinions about the rest of you or opining on the health status of any of you. He's too busy trying to win golf tournaments. If Goosen was trying to play hurt and was seen limping around the course, you think for a second Tiger would even give it a moment's thought unless directly asked?? Of course not.
At least Goosen has given me a reason to watch the British and PGA now. If he's in contention (highly unlikely) I have somebody to root against now, unless it's between him and Sergio "I didn't spit....I just let it go down" Garcia.