Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I can hear the sports radio teases now

Today I suspect a lot will be made on talk shows and message boards around SEC country (and maybe nationally, if it's a slow news day) of Deonte Thompson's comment to the Orlando Sentinel about John Brantley replacing Tim Tebow. If someone's looking to spark some controversy, this...

"With Brantley, everything’s with rhythm, time. You know what I mean, a real quarterback."

will do the trick. One of Tebow's teammates doesn't think he's a real quarterback! Couple that with the fact Tebow didn't look Thompson's way very often and there will be plenty of attempts to connect dots that aren't there. Thompson did a sloppy job of saying Brantley is a pocket passer while Tebow's running made it harder for receivers to know what to expect on a play, but he clearly isn't intentionally taking a shot at Tebow. That won't stop it from getting hyped up that way though.

Sunday a pair of Tiger Woods interviews had people talking. He spoke with Tom Rinaldi of ESPN and Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel, with both given only five minutes to ask whatever questions they had. The result felt like a combination of the lightning round of a game show with a little speed dating mixed in. The interviews generated a little info, but because of the limitations only a little. Yesterday the word came out that CBS had the chance to interview Woods as well but turned it down rather than dance to his tune. I applaud them for their decision. It would be one thing if they were offered an exclusive with Woods - some info is better than none - but with the five minute restriction all the interviews were going to be very similar. Rinaldi and Tilghman did as well as could have been expected with the time they had, but what's the point of letting Tiger recite his scripted answers on your network too? Meanwhile, Christine Brennan and other feminists are trying to claim Tiger's return at Augusta is a disrespectful gesture to women. Those protests eight years ago worked so well, why not try again?

We're a couple of weeks away from the start of MLB, with the news Joe Mauer is staying in Minnesota prompting much discussion of whether this shows smaller market teams can fend off the big boys to keep their superstars. SI.com's Jon Heyman looks at Tampa Bay's situation with Carl Crawford heading into the final year of his contract and basically says forget about it. If the Rays deal Crawford for parts while still in contention (a la Scott Kazmir) or let the Yankees buy him without a serious fight, it's going to do more damage to that franchise than they know.

Utah media report BYU's Jimmer Fredette is likely to declare for the NBA Draft on the strength of his 37 point performance against Florida. Fredette would have until May 8 to decide whether to come back or not under the new NCAA rule. Having seen that game in person, I can help Fredette with his choice here: STAY. He has as much chance of being an NBA first rounder as I do of being asked to replace Jim Rome tomorrow. Ten of Fredette's 37 came after Kenny Boynton fouled out. Lots of underhand layups and scoring on Ray Shipman do not mean you're an NBA guy.

Walter Hodge's 2006 NCAA Championship ring is up for sale on Ebay. You hate to see someone sell off his momento from something he worked so hard for, although Hodge has a family and if he needs money it's certainly his right to do so. I'm just surprised Hodge's name was publicly linked to the ring. Normally the name of the seller in a situation like this is kept under wraps.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heath, you need to look at all the photos in the ebay ad. Hodge's name and number (#15) are embossed into the side of the ring.

Heath Cline said...

I understand that, anon, but if you look at most ads for similar ring sales they either don't show the player's name in the photo by design or they blur it out in the photo. For whatever reason, that didn't happen with Hodge.