It's been interesting to hear the buildup to Florida-Georgia this year. Dawg fans don't have much hope, and what they do have is based around the premise Florida's red zone offense will make zero progress from what it has been the last two weeks. UGA has to hope for big plays, which they're most likely to get from AJ Green or Branden Smith. Smith's a DB who they play on offense occasionally, and the guy can fly. UF has got to be aware of him when he's on the field. Brandon Boykin's been dangerous on kickoff returns too. One trend to keep an eye on with UGA is that they've tended to turn the ball over early in drives for some reason. I think UF gets the job done, and Tebow looks much more like what people expect to see from him as Florida secures the win. It's not a great weekend for college football overall - here's the list of games from Awful Announcing.
Let me get this straight: Tatum Bell the luggage thief is talking trash about the UFL's Orlando Tuskers being able to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Right, a team composed entirely of NFL castoffs would beat a team of players who aren't. That makes a great deal of sense. The only thing that would be stupider than that argument would be for people to take anything "reported" by proven liar and fraud Dan Sileo seriously. Nothing like calling Tom Hicks, owner of the Dallas Stars, "Hickey" when you're supposedly reading names off a secret list to give you credibility. It sounds like Sileo may have gotten himself in some serious hot water here, with Tampa's ABC affiliate reporting he's been suspended. I hope so - he's everything that's wrong with my medium personified.
The whole Brett Favre storyline comes to a head this weekend with his return to Lambeau Field. I have to give the guy his due - to this point he's played better than I anticipated, although the early part of the Vikings schedule was complete trash. Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News does a great job of illustrating why the Packers still clearly made the correct call in telling Favre enough was enough when he tried his unretirement stunt last season. For me the game of the weekend is St. Louis at Detroit. The Rams are awful, and if they lose this one the possibility of 0-16 beomes very real. That would tie them with the Bucs for the longest losing streak ever at 0-26 - let's go, Lions!
One of the unique things we had in Florida when I was growing up was jai alai. It existed in a city here or there in a few New England states, but there used to be frontons all over Florida. Things began to tail off when the lottery was created in 1986 to give gamblers another way to spend their dollars. A lengthy strike caused a major disruption in 1988 and further damaged the sport. Sadly, it's been downhill ever since. I really enjoyed going to Tampa Jai Alai with friends, but the fronton was eventually closed to make way for a Home Depot. Now, one of the last operating venues is shutting down. Orlando Jai Alai goes away for good effective December 27, although they don't have any live action scheduled between now and then. My friends and I made a lot of trips there over the years, especially for the Citrus Invitational tournament in January where top teams from Spain and Mexico came in to play. The Ocala fronton bills itself as a poker room, although they stage the state required minimum number of jai alai performances to keep their license. At Hamilton the fraud of calling it a "jai alai" venue is even more absurd. They have six man singles games (real jai alai has eight, with singles and doubles) and there are literally no bets placed according to the results on their website. It's a shame - the game's a lot of fun to watch when played well. Only Miami and Dania are left as true American jai alai venues, and I'm not likely to be down there for any reason anytime soon. If you are, I encourage you to take some time and check out a performance.
That's kind of a downer note to head into the weekend on, so here's your chance to get a first glimpse of what the upcoming A-Team movie looks like. It should be good for a laugh, anyway. I had no idea Jessica Biel was in it - can't say that she and Liam Neeson would have been the people springing to mind if I'd been involved with casting. Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Congratulations, you're having a better day than Dick Bavetta
The Tim Donaghy scandal should have been a much bigger deal than it was for the NBA. No sport has more people regularly doubt the integrity of its officials than pro basketball (not even this month's SEC football absurdity can compare). Now one of the NBA's referees got caught betting as well as providing inside info to gamblers, and yet the story went away relatively quickly. That was about to change, as Donaghy is due to be released from prison soon and has written a book unveiling what he claims to be the truth about the behind the scenes dirty deeds of the NBA's officials. Yesterday word came down that the book would not be published next month after all. Donaghy's represenative says it was due to NBA legal threats, which they deny. Regardless, Deadspin has excerpts from the manuscript which are worth reading. Looking at those, I can definitely believe the NBA wants to do whatever they can to keep the book from being published. Even if you assume Donaghy is lying about half of what he says, it's still damaging stuff.
Wouldn't have expected Li'l Wayne to turn up twice on the blog within a week, but the rapper made news yesterday with the word that he included Lane Kiffin's name in his rap song "Banned From TV". The lyric goes "smoke weed, talk shit like Lane Kiffin/whole country in a recession but Wayne different". Not sure being associated with "talking shit" is something I'd be in a hurry to be proud of, especially when it's vocalized along with a string of drug references by a guy who's on his way to jail. Kiffin, of course, brags that Li'l Wayne has boosted his street cred". Words can't do justice to just how much of a tool this guy is.
Major college basketball recruiting reforms may be passed today, something the sport has needed for years. Removing the possibility of schools hiring someone as a "package deal" with a player to do anything but actually coach would be a huge positive for the sport's integrity. It's possible the proposal about not letting anyone but current staff members work camps is a little extreme, and this won't stop some guys from getting their hooks in on kids and getting paid for them. Overall though, this proposal is very good news.
For a long time people have known that Vegas doesn't lose. If you go there and play in the casino, eventually you will lose because the math of their house edge built into the games gets you. There is one potential exception to that, which is sports betting. While they have an advantage that helps them make money when you lose, it's conceivable you could win twenty in a row if you can find a weak spread. Last Sunday, thanks to horrible NFL teams like the Bucs, everyone found a weak spread. There are more outright awful NFL teams at once this season than I can remember there ever being. The lines for those teams are going to get bigger, but then fate may shift the other way as people catch the crappy team plus three TDs and win. Tough time for this to happen with the economy already taking a bite of the "experts in the desert", as Corso calls them.
Wouldn't have expected Li'l Wayne to turn up twice on the blog within a week, but the rapper made news yesterday with the word that he included Lane Kiffin's name in his rap song "Banned From TV". The lyric goes "smoke weed, talk shit like Lane Kiffin/whole country in a recession but Wayne different". Not sure being associated with "talking shit" is something I'd be in a hurry to be proud of, especially when it's vocalized along with a string of drug references by a guy who's on his way to jail. Kiffin, of course, brags that Li'l Wayne has boosted his street cred". Words can't do justice to just how much of a tool this guy is.
Major college basketball recruiting reforms may be passed today, something the sport has needed for years. Removing the possibility of schools hiring someone as a "package deal" with a player to do anything but actually coach would be a huge positive for the sport's integrity. It's possible the proposal about not letting anyone but current staff members work camps is a little extreme, and this won't stop some guys from getting their hooks in on kids and getting paid for them. Overall though, this proposal is very good news.
For a long time people have known that Vegas doesn't lose. If you go there and play in the casino, eventually you will lose because the math of their house edge built into the games gets you. There is one potential exception to that, which is sports betting. While they have an advantage that helps them make money when you lose, it's conceivable you could win twenty in a row if you can find a weak spread. Last Sunday, thanks to horrible NFL teams like the Bucs, everyone found a weak spread. There are more outright awful NFL teams at once this season than I can remember there ever being. The lines for those teams are going to get bigger, but then fate may shift the other way as people catch the crappy team plus three TDs and win. Tough time for this to happen with the economy already taking a bite of the "experts in the desert", as Corso calls them.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Air Israel, please clear the runway!
I'm glad Nimrod Tishman has been cleared to see action for Florida this season. Billy Donovan clearly doesn't expect him to come in and have a giant impact, but at least it gives them a viable option to keep from wearing Erving Walker out before the Gators even get to conference play. Tishman's going to be a source of great curiosity for some people. In Birmingham last week, at least two different Jewish focused publications tried to get Billy Donovan to discuss him (which he said he'd been advised not do given his status still being unresolved).
Andre Agassi's admission in his new book that he used crystal meth back in 1997 has people as stirred up as anything from the tennis world short of Anna Kournikova finally posing for Playboy would. The part I found interesting was how he got away with it after testing positive - he claimed he drank a soda spiked with the stuff by his assistant (who he had since fired). The ATP let him skate, which is absurd. I'm surprised Agassi would admit this - by all accounts he seems to be doing well financially so it's not like he's desperate for the book to sell. He's also got a foundation doing great work in Las Vegas and was a tremendous positive for his sport in his final years as a competitor after being everything that was wrong with it earlier in his career. I suppose he should be commended for his honesty here, but I hope it doesn't overshadow all the good things he's done since that time in his life.
SI.com's Don Banks has spotted a major problem brewing for college football in the next couple of months. There are two factors most people expect to drive an unprecedented number of top underclassmen into this draft:
1. a possible NFL labor stoppage in the 2011 season which would deprive guys who don't go this year of all or part of their rookie year's salaries
2. the Sam Bradford/Jermaine Gresham effect - better go pro or you'll get hurt and lose millions the way they may have
Knowing that more players than usual will be eyeing the draft, it would appear more important than usual for them to get reliable evaluations of where they stand. Thanks to a dispute over the coaches tapes, which XOS Technologies now control and want 20-30 million for when they used to be free, they aren't going to get them. XOS is the same outlet behind the SEC Digital Network that was trying to say TV stations could no longer use video they shot more than 72 hours after the game earlier this season. Remember, this is an "amateur" sport and it would be horribly wrong to give the kids any money. So what if XOS's greed now results in some of those same kids making bad decisions and wrecking their shot at a pro career because they couldn't get an honest assessment of where they stood - if you want to make an omelet you have to break some eggs, right?
Myron Rolle is studying at Oxford this year while also preparing for a potential NFL future. The former FSU safety didn't really do his alma mater any favor with his comments in this New York Times Q and A about their recent poor history of developing talent for the pros...
"Darnell Dockett, Laveranues Coles, Javon Walker, Anquan Boldin, Chris Hope were good in college, but when they got to the pros they blew up. I think it has a little bit to do with the scheme that’s played. I know for me, particularly, I don’t think that my abilities were used in blitzing and in pass downs. I was 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds and could run a little bit, I would like to have blitzed. My assignment on the field didn’t call for that. I also didn’t cover tight ends that much. I was covering slot receivers. It’s about your abilities and how they’re used."
Who knows whether FSU's coaching staff will be in Tallahassee next year or not? Should the current assistants stick around, they can count on having to defend themselves from those comments when they hit the recruiting trail in January.
Anyone else creeped out by Directv using Chris Farley's "fat guy in a little coat" scene from Tommy Boy in their new ad? It's one thing to have Sigourney Weaver doing a different version of a scene from Aliens - she made a concious choice to be in the commercial. Directv's decision to have David Spade basically mocking his dead friend as a way to make me want to buy their programming puzzles me. As for Spade, he's still got a TV series, does standup in Vegas and gets some film roles - he should be doing alright. How could he need money badly enough to think this was a good idea?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Mike Slive - still as effective as a lawn gnome. A rich lawn gnome, but a lawn gnome
The SEC took the easy way out and reprimanded Lane Kiffin again yesterday while putting out the word that should he act out again he might be suspended. He already should have been - questioning a call out of frustration is one thing, but claiming you made coaching decisions during a game based on fear of cheating referees is to put the conference on the level with WWE. Mike Slive should have suspended Kiffin for a game, hit him with a severe fine or both. No one in Knoxville seems bothered that Kiffin's version of the helmet rule isn't, you know, accurate. Of course considering the newspaper's columnist incorrectly thinks a suspended Kiffin could call the plays via cel phone I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Stephen Colbert's concept of "truthiness" seems to be in effect up there right now when it comes to the football program.
Fifteen quarterbacks were named as semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien Award, which goes to the country's best quarterback. Tim Tebow made the list, the only SEC QB to do so. Something is wrong when the SEC can't muster enough quality QB play to do better on this list than the MAC or MWC. The last two years no one has emerged as another high quality college quarterback except for Jevan Snead for a few weeks last year. Not appearing on the list: FSU's Christian Ponder, which is unfortunate because his individual performance on a bad team certainly merits it. Since none of the SEC quarterbacks but Tebow have stood out enough to make the final 15 for their award, it shouldn't surprise anyone too much that only AJ Green made the cut as one of the ten Biletnikoff semifinalists for the top receiver award. Guys from Bowling Green, San Diego State and Syracuse all apparently are doing as well at WR as the whole SEC.
The Knight Commission, now in its 20th year of refusing to acknowledge reality when it comes to college athletics (although I think technically they have a different mission statement), is concerned schools are spending too much on sports. No kidding, guys. Welcome to the 2000s. The system of college sports is a goofy one that's evolved over time. No one in their right mind would propose something like it if it didn't already exist. It does though, and there's huge interest from fanbases that only grows each year. All this lofty talk from the Knight Commission about cutting costs sounds really nice, but what's going to happen when one of the commission members has a coach who wins an unexpected conference title and bowl game? Will they pay market value to keep them, or smile and wish them well if they ask for more than the school president's salary? You know the answer, so do I, and so do they. It sure feels good to talk about getting serious about reining in athletics, though! Especially in Miami as opposed to say, a Chicago airport Fairfield Inn - that tropical climate really clears the head!
One of the weirder scores from the recent college football weekend was Texas A&M dominating Texas Tech. Mike Leach, coach of Texas Tech, feels he knows part of the reason his players weren't mentally sharp for that game: their fat little girlfriends. Presumably most of the players were dating these same girls the week before when Tech thumped Nebraska, but apparently they became dumber about football in the ensuing week. Leach discusses more interesting and daring things than any other college football coach, but this was not smart.
Fifteen quarterbacks were named as semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien Award, which goes to the country's best quarterback. Tim Tebow made the list, the only SEC QB to do so. Something is wrong when the SEC can't muster enough quality QB play to do better on this list than the MAC or MWC. The last two years no one has emerged as another high quality college quarterback except for Jevan Snead for a few weeks last year. Not appearing on the list: FSU's Christian Ponder, which is unfortunate because his individual performance on a bad team certainly merits it. Since none of the SEC quarterbacks but Tebow have stood out enough to make the final 15 for their award, it shouldn't surprise anyone too much that only AJ Green made the cut as one of the ten Biletnikoff semifinalists for the top receiver award. Guys from Bowling Green, San Diego State and Syracuse all apparently are doing as well at WR as the whole SEC.
The Knight Commission, now in its 20th year of refusing to acknowledge reality when it comes to college athletics (although I think technically they have a different mission statement), is concerned schools are spending too much on sports. No kidding, guys. Welcome to the 2000s. The system of college sports is a goofy one that's evolved over time. No one in their right mind would propose something like it if it didn't already exist. It does though, and there's huge interest from fanbases that only grows each year. All this lofty talk from the Knight Commission about cutting costs sounds really nice, but what's going to happen when one of the commission members has a coach who wins an unexpected conference title and bowl game? Will they pay market value to keep them, or smile and wish them well if they ask for more than the school president's salary? You know the answer, so do I, and so do they. It sure feels good to talk about getting serious about reining in athletics, though! Especially in Miami as opposed to say, a Chicago airport Fairfield Inn - that tropical climate really clears the head!
One of the weirder scores from the recent college football weekend was Texas A&M dominating Texas Tech. Mike Leach, coach of Texas Tech, feels he knows part of the reason his players weren't mentally sharp for that game: their fat little girlfriends. Presumably most of the players were dating these same girls the week before when Tech thumped Nebraska, but apparently they became dumber about football in the ensuing week. Leach discusses more interesting and daring things than any other college football coach, but this was not smart.
Monday, October 26, 2009
I've seen this movie, not involving killer sharks, before
Florida's win over Mississippi State was about what I expected. When
1.your offense is already somewhat limited in its effectiveness
2. the guy on the other sideline knows all your tendencies
3. you're using different signals than usual because of him as well
4. it's a night game in a stadium filled with clanging cowbells
those things tend to lead to a less than ideal performance. One thing that does stand out to me is Tim Tebow not talking to the media. People seem to forget that Tebow has struggled before. He got to a pretty crappy start to last season, and it wasn't until late in the Arkansas game after a particularly irritating interception when he snapped out of it. I suspect you will see him do that this week in a big way. Having some defenders get healthy will help UF as well.
Lane Kiffin's arrogance and ignorance continue to make for a heady brew. Now he's singing the "officials are conspiring against me" song to explain what happened at the end of Tennessee's loss to Alabama. Kiffin foolishly chose to run the clock down and settle for a 44 yard field goal try by a kicker who'd already had one blocked and missed another short from 47. With half a minute to go Kiffin's team could have attempted to get it closer and have an easier kick, but he now claims he was worried refs would call a phantom flag on his team if they did so. Simply put, he is claiming SEC officials were looking to fix the game for Alabama and he should be hammered for it by the conference. Kiffin's also complaining about not getting a chance to rekick after a 15 yard penalty since Terrence Cody of Alabama took his helmet off to celebrate the game saving blocked field goal while the ball was still live. Unfortunately for Lane the rules don't work that way, but it's already been established pretty well that he doesn't know what they are.
The fun just keeps on coming for ESPN lately. The Steve Phillips saga has ended as it was obviously going to, with him being officially fired by the network yesterday and heading to a treatment facility for unspecified personal issues. Now the network's PR can deal with whatever fires Bob Griese started with his comment that NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya was "out eating a taco" when his name came up during the Minnesota-Ohio State game. Maybe Bob can team up with Joe Buck on his show for some hilarious HBO comedy antics.
If the report that Mark McGwire will return to baseball as the new hitting coach for St. Louis is accurate, I'm puzzled. He was a beloved player there and LaRussa has defended him in the wake of the great steroid panic, so you understand why they want him. How does this help St. Louis though? Not many guys hit like McGwire did, so I'm not sure how exactly he'll be able to impart his wisdom to younger players. He was never known for being especially vocal either. This a really odd move by LaRussa.
For some reason, the concept of a channel that delivers reasonably accurate weather info every ten minutes has apparently become stale. Now they're going to show crappy movies on the network instead. I can only imagine how thrilled people trying to figure out if they can make it to work or not will be to learn that they can watch LL Cool J's epic killer sharks film Deep Blue Sea for a while and wait.
1.your offense is already somewhat limited in its effectiveness
2. the guy on the other sideline knows all your tendencies
3. you're using different signals than usual because of him as well
4. it's a night game in a stadium filled with clanging cowbells
those things tend to lead to a less than ideal performance. One thing that does stand out to me is Tim Tebow not talking to the media. People seem to forget that Tebow has struggled before. He got to a pretty crappy start to last season, and it wasn't until late in the Arkansas game after a particularly irritating interception when he snapped out of it. I suspect you will see him do that this week in a big way. Having some defenders get healthy will help UF as well.
Lane Kiffin's arrogance and ignorance continue to make for a heady brew. Now he's singing the "officials are conspiring against me" song to explain what happened at the end of Tennessee's loss to Alabama. Kiffin foolishly chose to run the clock down and settle for a 44 yard field goal try by a kicker who'd already had one blocked and missed another short from 47. With half a minute to go Kiffin's team could have attempted to get it closer and have an easier kick, but he now claims he was worried refs would call a phantom flag on his team if they did so. Simply put, he is claiming SEC officials were looking to fix the game for Alabama and he should be hammered for it by the conference. Kiffin's also complaining about not getting a chance to rekick after a 15 yard penalty since Terrence Cody of Alabama took his helmet off to celebrate the game saving blocked field goal while the ball was still live. Unfortunately for Lane the rules don't work that way, but it's already been established pretty well that he doesn't know what they are.
The fun just keeps on coming for ESPN lately. The Steve Phillips saga has ended as it was obviously going to, with him being officially fired by the network yesterday and heading to a treatment facility for unspecified personal issues. Now the network's PR can deal with whatever fires Bob Griese started with his comment that NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya was "out eating a taco" when his name came up during the Minnesota-Ohio State game. Maybe Bob can team up with Joe Buck on his show for some hilarious HBO comedy antics.
If the report that Mark McGwire will return to baseball as the new hitting coach for St. Louis is accurate, I'm puzzled. He was a beloved player there and LaRussa has defended him in the wake of the great steroid panic, so you understand why they want him. How does this help St. Louis though? Not many guys hit like McGwire did, so I'm not sure how exactly he'll be able to impart his wisdom to younger players. He was never known for being especially vocal either. This a really odd move by LaRussa.
For some reason, the concept of a channel that delivers reasonably accurate weather info every ten minutes has apparently become stale. Now they're going to show crappy movies on the network instead. I can only imagine how thrilled people trying to figure out if they can make it to work or not will be to learn that they can watch LL Cool J's epic killer sharks film Deep Blue Sea for a while and wait.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Better late than never
Today's post is a little later than usual because I was completely out of gas after driving back from Birmingham yesterday. Write when you're exhausted and you might wind up saying something really stupid like Creed is an excellent band. I didn't get to see all of FSU's comeback, but the part I saw while having dinner in Atlanta was impressive. Down 24-6 on the road, the easy thing to do is mentally pack it in. FSU didn't do that. They're still not very good - UNC is winless in conference play, after all - but at least they've got some pride. One thing last night will push into the national discussion a bit is that Christian Ponder has quietly been playing very well all year.
UF going against Dan Mullen will be the obvious storyline for this weekend, although the gone and not particularly lamented John Hevesy is involved as well. The defensive injuries are becoming a major issue for Florida, especially being thin at DT against an excellent back in Anthony Dixon. This will not be a fun experience for the Gators, but Mullen simply doesn't have enough horses yet to win a game against a team of this caliber. It's a pretty bland weekend overall - here's your viewing options courtesy of Awful Announcing.
Isiah Thomas is about as loathsome as anyone active in sports right now. His performance in any venue other than on the court has been disastrous, and then you throw in moments of racism, sexual harassment, using his daughter as a shield and so many more delightful memories and it all adds up to a gigantic zero. How FIU could possibly think he's an appropriate person be their basketball coach boggles the mind. Now Isiah's mad that Magic Johnson acknowledges he was one of many players who blackballed Thomas from the 92 Dream Team. Naturally, Isiah's pure as the driven snow and would NEVER have done any of those terrible things everyone in basketball has attributed to him for years. It's as if he honestly believes people don't remember all the other times he's looked them in the face and lied to them over the years. Magic's no saint, but I know whose word I'll take between those two every day of the week.
Lil Wayne is on his way to jail for felony gun posession. Betwen him and Plaxico Burress, celebrities may start to figure out that NYC's gun laws are not some sort of suggestion for them. I wonder if ESPN will ty and find a way to have him do some more appearances on their First and Ten show with Skip Bayless via satellite from his cel. It would make just about as much sense as it did putting him on in the first place. Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.
UF going against Dan Mullen will be the obvious storyline for this weekend, although the gone and not particularly lamented John Hevesy is involved as well. The defensive injuries are becoming a major issue for Florida, especially being thin at DT against an excellent back in Anthony Dixon. This will not be a fun experience for the Gators, but Mullen simply doesn't have enough horses yet to win a game against a team of this caliber. It's a pretty bland weekend overall - here's your viewing options courtesy of Awful Announcing.
Isiah Thomas is about as loathsome as anyone active in sports right now. His performance in any venue other than on the court has been disastrous, and then you throw in moments of racism, sexual harassment, using his daughter as a shield and so many more delightful memories and it all adds up to a gigantic zero. How FIU could possibly think he's an appropriate person be their basketball coach boggles the mind. Now Isiah's mad that Magic Johnson acknowledges he was one of many players who blackballed Thomas from the 92 Dream Team. Naturally, Isiah's pure as the driven snow and would NEVER have done any of those terrible things everyone in basketball has attributed to him for years. It's as if he honestly believes people don't remember all the other times he's looked them in the face and lied to them over the years. Magic's no saint, but I know whose word I'll take between those two every day of the week.
Lil Wayne is on his way to jail for felony gun posession. Betwen him and Plaxico Burress, celebrities may start to figure out that NYC's gun laws are not some sort of suggestion for them. I wonder if ESPN will ty and find a way to have him do some more appearances on their First and Ten show with Skip Bayless via satellite from his cel. It would make just about as much sense as it did putting him on in the first place. Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Will Bobby wear sunglasses tonight?
Greetings from Birmingham, where I'll be covering SEC basketball media day today. Somewhere else in town, SEC referee Marc Curles will be going about his day job as a financial planner. The conference announced yesterday that he and his crew won't have another assignment until November 14 as a result of the crappy job they did in the Arkansas-Florida (and presumably LSU-UGA as well) game. Curles spoke to ESPN's Mike Fish about what happened Saturday, and hopefully the people who are unloading on him will read what his explanation and realize they're being ridiculous. NFL officiating isn't consistently good, and college refs are a step down from those guys. It's an extremely hard job, and there aren't too many people who do it well. Frankly, even judged against his college peers Curles doesn't appear to be one of them. That doesn't mean people should be harassing him at his workplace or believing he's Tim Donaghy part 2 though.
FSU is on the road in Chapel Hill tonight for a matchup of teams winless in the ACC to this point. History is on UNC's side - Thursday night road games have tripped FSU up even when they were much better than this team is. Bobby Bowden's had a week and a half to get ready for this one, but his guys are seriously beaten up. DT Budd Thacker's apparently now gone for the year, there's likely no Dekoda Watson at LB tonight - this is very bad news for the Noles. A loss here and it becomes a virtual certainty that FSU's bowl streak will end. There'd also be no chance at a winning conference record, and there are just two home games left for them to try and regroup in this second half of the season. A win won't necessarily save the day for Bobby, but a loss tonight will be devastating.
Bad week to be a high profile sports TV personality, with ESPN's Steve Phillips having his affair with a 22 year old employee turn up in the New York Post. That would be bad enough, but according to the Post she went berzerk and began harassing his wife and son. I've never understood why ESPN hired Phillips in the first place. He's a former Mets GM who was viewed as having done a terrible job when he was dismissed. He's not a beloved former player, nor is he particularly controversial the way Bobby Valentine was when he was on air. On top of all that, Phillips was suspended from the Mets over sexual harassment issues. ESPN has had a lengthy history of controversy on that subject, including the dismissal of Harold Reynolds over an alleged episode of it. My guess is we've seen the last of Phillips as well, although they won't be in a hurry to announce that.
FSU is on the road in Chapel Hill tonight for a matchup of teams winless in the ACC to this point. History is on UNC's side - Thursday night road games have tripped FSU up even when they were much better than this team is. Bobby Bowden's had a week and a half to get ready for this one, but his guys are seriously beaten up. DT Budd Thacker's apparently now gone for the year, there's likely no Dekoda Watson at LB tonight - this is very bad news for the Noles. A loss here and it becomes a virtual certainty that FSU's bowl streak will end. There'd also be no chance at a winning conference record, and there are just two home games left for them to try and regroup in this second half of the season. A win won't necessarily save the day for Bobby, but a loss tonight will be devastating.
Bad week to be a high profile sports TV personality, with ESPN's Steve Phillips having his affair with a 22 year old employee turn up in the New York Post. That would be bad enough, but according to the Post she went berzerk and began harassing his wife and son. I've never understood why ESPN hired Phillips in the first place. He's a former Mets GM who was viewed as having done a terrible job when he was dismissed. He's not a beloved former player, nor is he particularly controversial the way Bobby Valentine was when he was on air. On top of all that, Phillips was suspended from the Mets over sexual harassment issues. ESPN has had a lengthy history of controversy on that subject, including the dismissal of Harold Reynolds over an alleged episode of it. My guess is we've seen the last of Phillips as well, although they won't be in a hurry to announce that.
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