Wednesday, May 13, 2009

You reap what you sow

I have a great idea. Brett Favre and Roger Clemens could team up and schedule surprise news conferences in seperate cities at the same time. Clemens can announce Favre's coming out of retirement to join the Vikings, and Favre admits Roger used steroids. Sure it would be ridiculous, but at least it would blow ESPN's mind. Instead, we got another dose of Clemens ineptly trying to defend himself on Mike and Mike yesterday. As Jeff Pearlman points out, Clemens succeeded in greatly elevating the sales of the book he was hoping to rebut, which was otherwise being ignored since no one likes Clemens and everyone long ago concluded he cheated. As for Favre, there's no way to know just how long poor Rachel Nichols will be stuck hanging out in Hattiesburg waiting for something to happen. the numbers indicate Favre would be better off coming back around week eight. Rachel may have her own private booth at the Hattiesburg Applebee's by then.

Southern Cal courted trouble by bringing in O.J. Mayo, and received almost nothing in return for their investment. They lost in the first round a year after having won a game in the tournament. Now they're reaping the full reward, as Yahoo Sports reveals coach Tim Floyd is alleged to have given more than a thousand dollars in cash personally to the agent's runner who pushed Mayo to USC. The informant has told his story under oath to the US Attorneys office, FBI, IRS as well as the NCAA (and for all we know, the FDA and INXS are next). We learned last month that the Reggie Bush football and Mayo basketball investigations had been combined into one entity. Now we have a head coach apparently paying someone for delivering a player. If this story is legit and the Trojan programs don't go down hard, I don't know how the NCAA can ever have credibility as a governing body again.

Tampa Bay team officials say they knew Kellen Winslow Jr. would be missing the start of Buccaneer offseason workouts. Maybe that's true, although it would have been helpful of them to share that info with the public before Warren Sapp went after him with a verbal flamethrower. I didn't like the move to trade for Winslow, especially considering the price, and him missing time when he could begin blending with his teammates doesn't reassure me much.

Knowing when you're in the right place and should stop looking around might be the toughest thing for anyone to do. Once upon a time, Tyrone Willingham was considered a sharp young coaching mind. After all, the guy had taken Stanford to the Rose Bowl! Willingham's unbelievably dull personality, lackluster recruiting and standoffish attitude with the media wasn't an issue, since expectations weren't super high and only about two reporters actually cover Stanford football. But Willingham moved on to Notre Dame, got canned there and landed in Seattle. After crapping out with an 0-12 season at Washington, Willingham will return to coaching this fall as an assistant. Instead of the NFL or a top college, he's the new special teams coach for San Francisco of the United Football League. From Fighting Irish head coach to minor league special teams coach in five years - should have known Palo Alto was where you belonged, Tyrone.

Some would argue the Yankees should have stayed where they belonged rather than moving to their ultra expensive new stadium. Since they did make the move, the only question now is how much cash the sales of anything that wasn't tied down at the old Yankee Stadium will bring in for the team. The prices have been set for things like seats, but I'll be curious about how much certain items go for at auction. How much would you pay for an official Brian Cashman used filing cabinet?

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