We're losing too many talented people lately

Why do so many companies try to market people by having them look angry? Showtime's new version of the old HBO Inside the NFL program debuted this week, and the promotional photo of the cast makes everyone but Warren Sapp look like they're about to pass a kidney stone. I just want to hear about the games, Phil Simms. Please don't hit me!

UF is catching some breaks with the schedule this year. First Tennessee foolishly gives up a bye week prior to facing the Gators so they could play a game on Labor Day, and now Ike has delivered some assistance. The Arkansas at Texas game has been moved back two weeks as a result of the hurricane. Before this, the Razorbacks had a bye week to get ready for Florida. Now, they'll be coming off a game against Alabama followed by a trip to Texas. Compare that to the Volunteers, who have four games this year against teams coming off their bye weeks, and the Gators schedule is looking good.

I'm a radio guy, and I take my profession seriously. I do some other things, like writing for fightingators.com, but my first priority has always been doing the best radio show I can. When people in my business act unprofessionally, that bothers me a great deal. It happens a lot, from music station DJs getting press box credentials and then showing up wearing the home team's jersey (in Jacksonville, one idiot country DJ actually was cheering during a Jaguars game before getting tossed) to sports guys who don't know basic facts of a big story because they were too lazy to do some reading before they strolled in to the studio that day. Not content with radio having the occasional egg on our face, someone has aparently decided to go for the whole omelet this week. With Ohio State about to face USC, Pete Carroll suddenly is getting prank calls during his teleconferences with reporters. The last time stupid crap like this was happening, it was a "wacky morning show" out of Philadelphia. This will turn out to be someone from my medium again. Can't wait to find out if it was a Columbus, Cleveland or Cincinnati rock station that thinks Trojan condom jokes about USC are still fresh. Way to make us all look good, guys.

Michelle Wie has not won a golf tournament in five years. It's the reason her continuing efforts to challenge men are so absurd - she hasn't even beaten the women in half a decade! Now, the supposed female Tiger Woods has to go to Q-school just to try and keep her LPGA card. Good thing she spent all that time trying to beat the guys as a marketing angle, huh?

One of my favorite authors has died. Gregory McDonald wrote the Fletch novels, which are all marvelous. McDonald helped adapt Fletch for the Chevy Chase movie, and it was brilliant. Three years later, genius studio executives decided they could write their own storyline for a sequel rather than use any of the dozen possibilities available from other existing McDonald Fletch novels. The result, Fletch Lives, was a huge disappointment and the movie series died off there. It shouldn't have gone that way. Take the time to read Fletch's Fortune, Carioca Fletch or Fletch and the Man Who and you'll see how good McDonald was. His Flynn series is only four books long but is also well worth your time - particularly Flynn's In and The Buck Passes Flynn. I strongly encourage you to check out any of his writing if you can find it.