Monday, May 10, 2010

The latest items in the Tiger Woods collection - coming soon to TJ Maxx

Wonder how nervous the folks at Nike are getting about Tiger Woods right now? After withdrawing from the Players Championship yesterday with an apparent bulging disk in his neck that's clearly affecting his performance, it's anyone's guess what happens next. Far it be from me to defend Tiger, but it's ridiculous for anyone to suggest that he's exaggerating this injury as a way to quit during his final round of the TPC or excuse his poor performance last week at Quail Hollow. Woods was hitting drives at the TPC that looked nothing like what we're used to seeing from him. I have no trouble believing he's legitimately hurting, and given his effort at the US Open on a torn ACL and damaged leg two years ago neither should anyone else. For Woods this year is more likely to get worse rather than better. All the tabloid nonsense and possible divorce aside, remember he also says he has a partially torn Achilles tendon. Couple that with whatever this is and it may be best for him to just step away and let his body heal while also continuing to work on his psyche. Getting back on the course probably felt for Tiger like it would be a return to normalcy, but these last two weeks couldn't have helped anything much.

Over the weekend the single least surprising performance enhancing drug related suspension in years came to light. Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing will miss the first four games of next season for failing a test last year. He was the defensive rookie of the year, an award he should now be stripped of as a result of this news. Cushing has been suspected of PED use since early in his college career, and I wonder if this is going to prompt further scrutiny of what was going on at USC when he was there. He's certainly not the only defender from that program who's had people suspicious of him the past few years.

This sounds like something the folks at the Onion would make up, but it's no joke. Someone not only hired Dave Bliss to coach basketball again, they made him the Dean of Students as well. A private high school in Texas feels the man who tried to cover up his cheating as head coach of Baylor by framing a murdered player as a drug dealer will make a great mentor for their kids. It absolutely boggles the mind that anyone could make this choice. What Bliss did was a disgrace to his profession. He has no business being involved with the game in any capacity, and especially not one that involves teaching young people anything.

Just in case you thought there was any chance that the "can Tim Tebow be an NFL QB?" hype might die down post draft, feel free to stop. Dueling newspaper columns in Denver yesterday urged the Broncos to trade starter Kyle Orton to make room for Tebow and/or Brady Quinn. I wouldn't trade Orton, but if the Broncos do I assume Quinn will be the top candidate for the starting job. Tebow needs time to learn the NFL way of doing things before he tries to play the main role under center. If they throw him out there right away it will likely turn out badly.

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