This Reggie Bush scandal (via Yahoo Sports) is the biggest story of the day. I'll have a stand-alone item on it coming later this morning. Meanwhile... WVA demolishes Maryland, 45-24: This was exactly the national-TV spanking I said WVA needed to have. Perfect execution: Go up 28-0 in the first quarter -- most poll voters probably turned the game off after that, satisfied they just watched a BCS title contender.
No matter what Brady Quinn does this weekend, I'm bumping him from my Heisman Top 3 for Steve Slaton, who had 149 yards and 2 TDs... in the first quarter!
Sorry, Adrian Peterson: Slaton is the most exciting RB in college football, a poor man's Reggie Bush... without the $100K in free swag.
P.S.: If you haven't checked it out, you must read the
WVA-MD Comment string on readers' "Best Sports Moment" from yesterday (165 when I last checked, by far the most comments on a single topic yet). Absolutely great stuff from everyone. Huge thanks for participating!
Tiger: NOT World's Greatest Athlete. Woods loses in FIRST ROUND of World Match Play: Best athlete in the world? (Even more ludicrous: Best athlete EVER?) PLEASE. No one who loses in the first round of a one-on-one tournament can be considered the best athlete in the world. Roger Federer plays one-on-one tournmanets EVERY WEEK; think he'd lose in the first round (or, to be apples-to-apples, the round of 64)? Hells no.
Steve Foley Story Takes Strange Turn: As if it needed any more, now prosecutors want to test Foley's blood for steroids, arguing that his actions couldn't possibly have been from alcohol alone.
(So they assume it's a roid rage? Have they never seen a belligerent drunk? They need to spend more time with frat guys. Still, this is a weird story getting weirder. I'm betting PFT is all over this later today.)
MLB De Facto Playoffs: Padres at Dodgers. San Diego is only .5 GB the Dodgers heading into their huge weekend series. I know there are a lot of games left, but head-to-head is the quickest way to generate space between you and a division rival – and to capture stretch momentum.
Update (12:03 p.m.): Wow, what a signal of what a non-event the Yankees-Red Sox series is that I didn't mention it in my first pass-through this morning. I think that says more than any commentary I might make about the weekend series. There's just no drama.
(I suppose if there's one particular drama, it's the MVP battle between Ortiz and Jeter. And I'm getting more and more of a feeling that Jeter is going to win.)
Liriano Mystery: If he's still got no structural damage, why is he in so much pain? The Mystery Strain should concern Twins fans more than something more serious, but at least knowable.
Want some good "Dancing with the Stars" analysis? Check out
Rachel Sklar's analysis of Tucker Carlson from the Huffington Post's Eat the Press section. If "DWTS" has an online-media-only edition, I want to see Rachel out there (and I'll totally be a contestant too, obviously).
Coming later today: My live-blog (or maybe you'd call it a "running diary") of Bill Simmons on Colbert Report.
Posted. Here's the link. Also coming later today: Standalone items for the complete week in college football (picks!) and the NFL (more picks!) I was going to post them early, but I want to make sure I don't push the Simmons/Colbert post too far down before it gets a good run at the top. Coming soon.
-- D.S.
Posts
18 comments:
*blink* *blink* *YAWN* Good morning ... so what's happeni--
*wide awake* REGGIE BUSH WHAT?!?
brb
Christian (High Point, NC)
I found this funny:
"[Ornstein] also told Yahoo! he had "no idea" if such a loan would violate NCAA rules.
NCAA rules state that players and their families may not receive loans or benefits from agents. "
How could you be an agent and not know that? Sadly, Reggie Bush will probably run for 200 yards against the Packers on Sunday as a result of this.
My brother, who's a Dodgers fan, wants LA to get the Wild Card because he believes the Dodgers have a better chance against the Mets in the first round.
As for Federer/Woods, I have a problem labeling anyone from a sport without contact as the greatest athlete. I'm not going to decry Tennis or Golf (or NASCAR or Cycling) as non-sports because of the lack of contact, but I think the best athletes should be those who not only excel at what their intended job is, but are also able to deal with any and all extraneous punishment along the way.
Which is why Ty Cobb is the greatest athlete of all time.
Christian (High Point, NC)
I can't get behind the "Tiger-All-Time" argument. I do think that if you want to talk about greatest athlete ACTIVE RIGHT NOW, it's between Tiger and Federer.
But, again, I don't see Federer losing in the FIRST round of a match-play scenario (which is, uh, every time he plays).
Again: How can the greatest active athlete (let alone the greatest athlete ever) NOT make the cut at one of his sport's four major tournaments AND lose in the first round of a match-play tournament... in the same year, no less!
Wake me when the NCAA actually does something with this Reggie Bush story. The rumors have been out there forever. I'm more interested to see how he does this weekend.
So does Liriano's clean MRI mean that there is a chance of him returning for the playoffs??
Good luck to Jim Kaat in his retirement. Calling his last game tonight. One of the few baseball announcers who never got annoying or too homer and was usually always enjoyable to listen to.
"No matter what Brady Quinn does this weekend..."
Well, at least you have an open mind going into this weekend.
Agreed corrnd.
And, thank you Tiger for losing so we could shut up all of the talk about "greatest this and that." Here's they key that I keep mentioning, if a overweight, out-of-shape, lacking all types of athletic fitness and skill, can be at the top of the sport...then they are not an athlete and the "top player" can't be the greatest of anything sports related. Again, give Jordan, Gretzky, Jeter, Manning, and even Federer a club and they could play golf. Give 90% of golfers a football, baseball, etc., etc., or even ask them to run just one mile...and you'd get nothing.
One More Thing (tm):
Clay Court:Tennis::Match Play:Golf.
Good point, chrth. But even with that analogy, you can't forget that Federer got to the championship match at the French Open and Tiger lost in the first round.
Bah Corrnd, as if people don't boost Quinn up anyways no matter what, since he's a Domer.
Liriano is young..first major injury? It could well just be in his head. He's nervous about it so he thinks he's feeling pain in that arm.
Simmons is going on Colbert?
Dan while I don't think you're wrong about how people will feel about WVA after that game last night in the polls - I think that there has to be some concern there.
I mean that secondary looked really bad and when they play a team like oh I don't know - Louisville - those young DBs are going to be exposed pretty badly.
Also that team absolutely disappeared in the second half (outscored 14-7) and while I know the game was pretty much put away at that point - when you're looking to make an impact to off set a weak schedule you need to show the pollsters that you're willing to play the whole 4 quarters and I have yet to see that from the Mountaineers.
Steve Slaton was unbelievable in the first half but in a game that he rested a week for I would have expected more out of him in the second half - but again the game was pretty much put away so it's tough to judge if Maryland actually had any part in slowing him down.
Anyways that's just my two cents on the whole ordeal while I've been writing about since lastnight, heh.
cornnd:
True, but let's be fair to Tiger. This was a 16-seed tournament. Federer didn't even play a seeded player in the French Open until the 3rd round, and that was a 32 seed. He played a 20 seed in the 4th, and then finally a 12th seed in the QF (aka Round 5). So if you equate it, Tiger lost in the 4th round, not the 1st.
Ok, Rafael, fair enough. All I ask for is an open mind! Besides, what do Slaton's numbers tell us when he's playing Maryland? Won't Quinn's numbers (good or bad) against a team like Michigan be more telling?
"Simmons is going on Colbert?"
Didn't realize this either. He was on last night. Replay at 2:30 and 8:30ET today. Setting Tivo now...
The fact remains that I would ONLY watch golf to see Tiger.
I would ONLY watch tennis to see Federer....vs Nadal.
IMO, that tells me that both are definitely great.
WVU might not be a great team yet...certainly tough to prove against that schedule.
But Slaton is the real deal... I think that kid would play ridiculously well for any team he was on.
So far this season, in terms of "transferable skill from team to team", I would rate Slaton behind only NIU's Garrett Wolfe.
Having seen what they can do to a fast defense, I tell ya, they sneak up on players and Slaton scores QUICK. UGA fan if ya hadn't noticed.
Anyways, them boys can run, but they are weak on D and even though they destroyed UGA in the sugar bowl, it took a flawlessly executed fake punt to keep from UGA winning in the fourth quarter.
Their defense is very suspect. Even FSU could get the running game going on them. :)
My point was...although Tiger APPEARS to be in a decent athletic shape, it's not the same level of competition as ahtletic sports. When your competition can challenge you at the specs I was using as an example, that is not near the same level of difficulty as what Federer has to face.
Hey Dan, Why are you avoiding the Michelle Wie story this week? Is it time for you to admit you are wrong about her and maybe she is not as good as everyone is making her out to be. One of the writers over at ESPN wrote a real good article about her, her is a link.
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/columns/story?columnist=rosaforte_tim&id=2586158
oh yeah and as of this posting she was +11 and in last place at the 84 Lumber Classic
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