Joe Barton: the most tone deaf man in politics

The same member of Congress who initiated the dog and pony show hearing to pander to Texas fans upset that they lost out in the BCS is at it again. Now Rep. Joe Barton of Texas is threatening to have the executive director of the Alamo Bowl charged with perjury and contempt of Congress. Derrick Fox, the gentleman in question, testified that bowls provide tens of millions of dollars to charities. Apparently the most recent accurate figure is 3.2 million. Exactly how prosecuting Fox for this supposed perjury would do anything to help the country or even the cause of a playoff system is not clear. The idea that Roger Clemens and the executive director of the Alamo Bowl are the two people most likely to be prosecuted for lying to Congress right now while, say, Alberto Gonzales evidently has nothing to fear speaks volumes about how ridiculous this is.

Billy Gillispie is suing Kentucky, claiming he was fired "without cause" and should get all the money he was scheduled to earn under the terms of his memorandum of understanding with the school. That's hilarious, since the memorandum was supposed to be the prelude to a contract Gillispie refused to sign for his entire two years he worked at the school. As they should have, UK is countersuing. In contract law according to Gillispie, he gets all the protections of a contract without giving the school anything in return. It seems agreeing to a personal conduct code, interacting with boosters and doing PR stuff - things that are standard for any head basketball coach - was a little too much to ask of Billy G. Gillispie's explanation was that he was a coach, and that's all. There's a name for those kind of people: assistant coaches. They make 15-20 times less than a head coach for a reason. If you want the trappings of being a head coach, you have to live up to the responsibilities too.

I was sorry to see the news that Lee Corso recently suffered a stroke. Fortunately indications are it wasn't too severe (I refuse to ever say "mild" about stuff like strokes or heart attacks) and Corso should be recovered by football season. Lee's an unusual guy, but treats people very well. What you see is his own odd persona - all the "not so fast my friend" and "sweetheart" stuff is him, not some guy who decided to start throwing out catchphrases so he could be famous. College Gameday remains a terrific show, despite ESPN's best efforts to find ways to screw it up over the past decade. It would be a shame for Corso not to have been able to continue to be a part of it.

I would not want to try and sing the Star Spangled Banner in public under any circumstances. Even pros acknowledge it's a very difficult song to hit the right notes on, and that's without the added factor of thousands watching you do it. If you do accept the invitation to sing it before a public event, your mission is simple: sing the song. Be respectful and sing it as written as well as you are capable of doing. Do not, as Tyrese Gibson did before Lakers-Nuggets Wednesday night, decide to rewrite the lyrics to say "our Lakers were still there" or "the home of the Indianapolis 500". This is not a hard concept - sing the song, with no shoutouts to anything, or don't sing.

Tongight's Jay Leno's final day as host of the Tonight Show. I almost never tune in, so I watched it for the first time in a while last night. How the hell has this guy been the top rated late night host for years? I've seen Leno in person - he can be very funny as a standup comic. So why is his show so mind-numbingly dull? Reading interviews with him like this one from GQ the past few weeks, I think I understand the problem. David Letterman does the show he wants to do, and assumes the audience can keep up. Unlike when he's performing in person, Jay dumbs everything down to the point where if you have a brain you can say his punchlines with him as he does his monologue. He runs the show like he's running for mayor of Topeka. It's been good business for Leno, but I'm glad he's going away. Unfortunately the odds are that rather than actually challenge people a little bit, he'll do the same thing every night at ten when he debuts this fall.

Sorry we were off the usual routine this week. The trip to Destin was extremely productive, but with so much audio to edit and writing to do for fightingators.com I had to miss yesterday after not having a chance to blog Tuesday either. Things should be back to the five day a week routine now. Have a good weekend, and I'll see you back here Monday.

I can see Brett Favre's house from here

Good morning from the Gulfport Mississippi Airport. I'm about to fly home after covering day one of the SEC Spring meetings in Destin, FL. It was a fascinating day - like SEC media days in July to the power of ten. I've been up all night editing audio and writing for fightingators.com, but I did want to get something fresh posted on the site today. The unquestioned highlight moment was when Steve Spurrier confronted Lane Kiffin about his comment earlier in the day that he was still waiting for an apology from him for publically asking if he had called a recruit prior to taking his NCAA test (the call was made two days before Kiffin was announced as Tennessee's head coach). Only a few of us were there to see it, and tragically there is not video. What's funny is that Spurrier had been avoiding the media all day. I convinced him to stop before getting on the elevator and then Kiffin had the bad fortune to walk up about 90 seconds later just as someone asked Spurrier about the remark. Kiffin appeared absolutely terrified - and justifiably so. That's not a battle of wits he's going to win. More on the meetings tomorrow.

By now Nick Calathes going pro in Greece is old news, but as you know if you've been reading it's what I expected to happen. It's an interesting choice to do it before the draft though. Calathes will make more money in Europe, but now runs the risk of having a Christian Drejer career. Drejer scored a big payday to turn pro but never did make it back across the Atlantic to play in the NBA. His European career proved to be a major disappointment - we'll see how Calathes, who isn't from Europe and has less natural ability than Drejer did, does. Billy Donovan said yesterday that Florida is still recruiting a point guard. Apparently there's a talented kid who qualified late out of a Philadelphia prep school that they've been asking about. If they can land someone with skills, I'm not sure UF will miss Calathes nearly as much as people might think.

Percy Harvin spoke with the St. Paul Pioneer-Press for a profile story. One part of it in particular jumped out at me. When asked who he would be if he could be someone else for a day, Harvin selected Tim Tebow. That in and of itself isn't so shocking, but this passage...

"We saw all kind of actors and news reporters just kind of blatantly say, "Tebow, I want you." And he turned them down."

News reporters? Really? No one I covered UF with did that, which means Harvin's got to be talking about someone on a national level or someone who covered him from outside the Florida media. Interesting.

They're boarding the plane, so I'll have to cut it short. Back to the usual tomorrow.

Oh good, a potential mentor for Talib!

Plaxico Burress is not a terribly hot NFL commodity right now. His pending felony gun charges and potential three and a half year mandatory prison term if convicted might have something to do with that. Another likely factor: Burress was flaky and had been having injury issues even before he accidentally shot himself. Yet according to NFL.com's Steve Wyche, Tampa Bay has expressed interest in bringing in Burress. A receiving unit that includes chronic screwup Antonio Bryant, "Souldja" Kellen Winslow, and the loathsome Jerramy Stevens needs this addition like they need a return of Leeman Bennett as coach. The team colors may be switching from pewter to brown really soon.

I don't want to write and talk about Lane Kiffin everyday. I really and truly don't. But when a rookie SEC head man cans his strength coach right before summer workouts start, it's impossible to ignore. Mark Smith, the coach who's on his way out, was one of those hires away from another SEC school that Kiffin was bragging about four months ago. I'll be very curious to hear the eventual explanation of why Lane wants him to hit the road.

Let me get this straight. There is no book chronicling Steve Spurrier's career, yet there's going to be one about the job Rich Brooks has done in rebuilding Kentucky? Were their two Music City Bowl wins really that extraordinary? Seems to me like going after a gnat with a shotgun, which is more of a Burress kind of thing to do.

Apparently there are people in America who still read Archie comics. The biggest mystery of the lengthy series is about to be resolved, and it's not what the heck is up with Jughead's hat. According to the comic's publishers, this August the title character will choose between Betty and Veronica and get engaged. If this is exciting news to you, I strongly encourage you to get out of the house more.

I'll be traveling to Destin Monday for the SEC's spring meetings. They begin on Tuesday and I'll return home on Wednesday. Since I'm not sure what my combo of time and internet access will be, assume there won't be a new post earlier than Tuesday and potentially the day after. Have a great weekend and I'll catch you back here then.

Wonder what the second choice behind Geoduck was?

I have a new theory about Lane Kiffin. You know how a pressing team in basketball plays so physically that they wind up getting away with fouls because the refs can't call everything? Maybe that's what Lane's trying for - commit enough small violations that eventually people will expect it and no one will care when you do. Or maybe I'm overthinking it and he's just inept. Penn State assistant Jay Paterno appears to believe the latter is correct. Kiffin was busy putting out this fire on ESPN yesterday after finally paying the bill for his Pahokee insults Tuesday. Give Lane credit, though, he is the first coach to pick up a recruiting violation via twitter. The man's an innovator. Tons of people are looking forward to seeing UF kick his teeth in this September, including Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean. Ironically enough, he twittered that out last night.

In yesterday's post I mentioned that I'm highly skeptical of ESPN's Chad Ford's mock draft "insights". He had Nick Calathes as the 23rd pick in the draft. Now Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen has put out his own version of the first round. Calathes is nowhere to be found. For that matter, no one in the entire SEC is projected as a first rounder. Not too hard to figure out why the league was so down this year when you see that.

I hated Tampa Bay's decision to draft Aqib Talib from Kansas in the first round last year. Sure he's talented, but he also tested positive for marijuana three times in college and had other problems as well. Everything about him screamed trouble at a very loud volume, but the Bucs went ahead and selected him anyway. At the NFL rookie symposium, Talib got in a fight with a fellow Bucs draftee. Yesterday it happened again, with Talib injuring a teammate by swinging his helmet as part of a fight. I've said it a number of times - you pan for gold in a river, not a sewer. Too often under Jon Gruden, the Bucs ignored that warning and now they're paying the price.

The NFL has responded to Delaware's recent approval of sports betting on NFL games (through lottery parlay cards) as they always do. They've acted SHOCKED at the notion such a thing could happen. After all, this is a league so committed to opposing gambling that it refused to let NBC promote its own TV show Las Vegas (a drama not set in a real casino) during NFL games. Meanwhile, what did the NFL do Tuesday? It voted to accept lottery sponsorships for the first time and allow their trademarks to be used on scratch off tickets. It's okay to encourage Steeler fans to gamble and even sell them tickets to do so with the team's logo, but to gamble on the outcome of a Steelers game would be wrong. What a bunch of money grubbing hypocrites.

The folks at TIME magazine have compiled a list of the ten worst college team names. Some you have likely heard of, but I assume the Evergreen State College Geoducks and Grays Harbor College Chokers are new to you as well. If the suggestion gets made to name a school's athletic teams for a clam, you'd think someone in power would have enough sense to say no. Since that didn't happen, you get to see the result at the top of this page.

Kentucky will steal ND's idea to deal with the Gillispie era

After last night's NBA lottery, Chad Ford of ESPN.com came out with his official mock draft. He has Nick Calathes as a first round pick at number 23 to Sacramento. I do not believe Ford is correct in that assessment - in fact, based on what I've seen from him over the years the odds are better than average he's not. The reality is that this only further ensures Calathes will not be at UF next season. He's dying for people to tell him what he wants to hear, and Ford just did. If Nick doesn't go first round, don't expect the man who hyped Darko Milicic as the next great big man to acknowledge he blew it again.

John Wall signing with Kentucky wasn't a stunner - the word was that's what his AAU coach wanted him to do - but it was another tough piece of news for UF. Not only could they not get in on him late, but they'll have to face him twice. John Calipari appears to have assembled the most mercenary laden team ever in Lexington before he's ever coached a game. Maybe there's a way to blend all this elite "one and done" talent with an existing roster without creating a chemistry nightmare. Perhaps there's a way to run off three or four kids (depending on what Jodie Meeks decides) from that roster without paying an APR price. We'll all find out together, but Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports already has Kentucky listed as next year's preseason number one. As for Florida, with no Calathes and no apparent candidates to add for the point guard spot next season as of now, they will be incredibly thin in the backcourt. If anything happens to Erving Walker, they'll be dead meat.

Peter King of Sports Illustrated reports that the NFL Network is livid about Jon Gruden taking the Monday Night Football job. It seems they felt they had a deal in place with him to be the analyst for their package of games while working on the network this season. Gee, I am shocked to hear that someone feels Jon Gruden lied to them and just did whatever he felt like doing. Who could have ever guessed such a thing might happen? But hey, he makes faces on the sideline!

Speaking of lying, how pathetic is it that Notre Dame won't acknowledge Charlie Weis's 3-9 2007 season in his bio for their media guide? They call it "accentuating the positive". They only list seasons during his career where the team Weis was coaching for finished with winning records, which means they leave plenty of years out. Anyone reading the guide knows Weis hasn't been very successful lately - why pretend you can hide that?

FSU'S Corey Surrency has officially been turned down by the NCAA in his efforts to appeal for an extra year of eligibility. The fact FSU has been making quick fix signings like him and Joe Tonga just trying to get some talent on offense speaks volumes about how far that program has fallen. They're incredibly thin at receiver, so this news won't go over well. Bobby Bowden will think this is another example of the NCAA having it out for the Seminoles because they won't change their name. Or it could be that they're enforcing the rules. One of the two, for sure.

I haven't been a golfer for two decades, but I wish I could get a chance to do this someday. How cool would it be to hit balls off the 34th floor?

Yanni is stronger than pro wrestlers - who knew?

The Monday Night Football announcer booth revolving door has spun again, with Tony Kornheiser leaving and Jon Gruden stepping in to join Ron Jaworski and Mike Tirico. Kornheiser in the booth never felt right to me. He's excellent on PTI and when he writes, but him trying to be irreverent during an actual game came off as forced more often than not. Whether his leaving is about his fear of playing and the difficulties it presented with the job or something else really doesn't matter. Gruden in the booth will be interesting. The guy can be funny, charming and he certainly knows football. He also pumps out truckloads of BS on a regular basis. If Gruden's candid, he could be really good. If he pulls punches while trying to position himelf for every open coaching job, that'll stink. By doing this for the next two years, Gruden can avoid having to move his family while collecting tons of money from the Bucs owners for doing nothing. Sounds like a good plan to me.

There was more good news yesterday from the broadcast world, as Fox and MLB announced they would begin World Series and ALCS games at 7:57 rather around 8:30. There's no reason for major sporting events to consistently end after midnight. Now the Dodgers and Angels will make it to the World Series and cause MLB to move it back so that their fans have time to get to the games.

As budget issues continue to mount throughout the country, it's interesting to see which places are being affected athletically. FSU has floated the idea of campus wide furloughs of staffers, which would inclde the football coaches. Now LSU could be going down that path as well. The end result of Les Miles and his coaches being furloughed for one week would save the school just over 108 thousand dollars. Maybe the belief by those in power is that the threat of some sort of disruption in Tiger recruiting is the only thing enough to get Louisiana residents to take the financial crisis seriously.

The outstanding Capitals-Penguins NHL playoff series was disrupted early this month by an outside presence: Yanni. Games 4 and 5 were played back to back because the new age musician had a concert scheduled at Pittsburgh's Igloo and Yanni would not be moved. Now it's the WWE's turn to try and hold off intruders, as their Denver show will be dislodged to make room for Game 4 of the Lakers-Nuggets Western Conference finals. Not sure what stunts Vince McMahon has in mind to attract attention to his roided up grapplers, but you can rest assured he'll milk this for all its worth.

Incompetence really bothers me

Normally my blog posts begin with sports, but as someone in the media what I am seeing unfold right now is incredibly irritating to me. It is 12:05 eastern as I type this. There was an earthquake in Los Angeles at 11:40 Sunday night. I know this because I have read about it from multiple people, including Ice-T, on my Twitter feed. Here is what is on the four national "news channels" more than half an hour after the earthquake: Larry King and Elizabeth Edwards on tape on CNN, Jane Velez with more Caylee Anthony talk via tape on HLN, Lockup on MSNBC, and "Red Eye" on Fox. Not one of them even has a bulletin running across the bottom of the screen after an estimated 5.0 earthquake in our second biggest city. Want to know why the traditional broadcast network news model is dying? This is your answer. Both ESPN and Fox Sports Radio are talking about the quake, because they're on top of things. Why should I watch these TV outlets when there's breaking news if this is the crap they're serving up when it happens at an inconvenient time? Ice-T - the most trusted name in news - it really has a ring to it.

A lot of people will assume the TV networks are sad that Boston was throttled by Orlando in game seven last night. Unless you're a Celtics fan, you shouldn't be. The Magic versus Cleveland will be a much more entertaining series than the used up Boston squad would have provided. Once Garnett was lost, any chance of a Celtics repeat was as well. If Orlando doesn't get caught up in their victory and let down mentally, they have a great chance of advancing to the Finals.

My Saturday night was spent in Charlotte at Lowe's Motor Speedway watching Tony Stewart win the NASCAR All-Star Race. NASCAR has always been a sport people have discussed with me the way I do the NHL with someone who's never seen hockey - you've got to see it in person to appreciate it. I came away impressed with what the drivers can do, but it's definitely not my cup of tea. For the first 50 laps, absolutely nothing happened. For the final ten laps, things got pretty wild and it was interesting. Next week's race is 600 miles though, and won't have the million dollar incentive and the lack of point risk that prompted the interesting ending. I can't even remotely imagine sitting through three times as many laps as we saw two nights ago.

I've always been a believer that if you are invited to visit the White House by the president, you should go whether he shares your views or not. Most of the time, that's what happens although there are occasionally folks who just can't cross the political divide. Mark Chmura was far too moral to go there with the Packers when Bill Clinton was in office, for example. Now a member of the Steelers has announced he won't be making the trip, for possibly the weirdest reason ever. Linebacker James Harrison says that since Obama wouldn't have invited Pittsburgh if they lost the Super Bowl, he's not going now that they did. Hey James, if McCain had won would you have wanted to visit Obama at his Senate office? If not, then this reasoning makes you look like a complete idiot.

Periodically a story makes news about someone impersonating a police officer. Sometimes it's for sinister purposes, but often it's just some guy who just wants to indulge his inner Ponch and Jon. Those guys are weird, but this guy takes the cake. How messed up in the head do you have to be to call the real police for backup on your traffic stop when you're a pretend cop?