Archive for November, 2006
Week 11 Smorgasbord…
Mattress Mack Wants New Facility Named After Coach Who Had Heart Attack And Then Got Canned
A fellow known as “Mattress Mack” has given a gift of $1 million to the University of North Texas football program… on the condition that they rename a new athletics facility after Darrell Dickey, a football coach who was fired by the school three weeks after he had a heart attack. If North Texas refuses… Mattress Mack will have the entire $1 million redirected to the music department.
They’re going to do it. Man, that renaming ceremony is going to be awkward.
Mattress Mack… is all man. If for no other reason than the nickname “Mattress Mack.” His real name is Jim McIngvale, but I guess he sells mattresses and his some goofy commercials that have earned him the nickname. For a short time after high school, I was briefly known as “Mattress MJD,” but for vastly different reasons that I’m not going to get into it other than to tell you, hey, a man’s gotta make a living.
Anyway, I think that’s a pretty awesome thing for Mack to do.
“Right’s right and wrong’s wrong. It’s the right thing to do,” McIngvale said. “I don’t think firing a guy three weeks after he had a heart attack was the right thing to do, either. Even Wall Street is not that callous.”
I also found this little note interesting:
McIngvale’s $1 million gift means a lot at North Texas, where the football program’s budget is about $3.7 million and the music school’s is about $8.7 million.
You don’t see that a lot. I’m guessing circumstances are a little different at, say, I dunno… Miami? I don’t know what their football budget is, but judging from the production values on that “Seventh Floor Crew” song, I know their music department isn’t seeing a lot of money these days.
Oh, and here’s Mattress Mack in action.
#1 vs. #2, rivalry game, BCS Championship Game, blah blah blah… but when Calvin starts peeing on something, then you know it means something.
Here’s what I don’t want to happen on Saturday. I don’t want a well-played, close game that comes down to the wire. Most people say now that they don’t want a rematch in the BCS Championship Game (Christ, I hate typing that), but if this one’s an instant classic, Brent Musburger and everyone else will be leading the cheers for them to do it again in Arizona.
I would hate, a couple months from now, for everyone to just accept that this Saturday’s game was meaningless, and if there’s a rematch, then that’s certainly what it was. Whoever loses… hey, you had your chance. I’d even rather see Notre Dame in there than a rematch. And if there were to be a rematch of this game, while Rutgers was still undefeated… well, that would be the ultimate middle finger to every college football program in the country that doesn’t have a reputation as a powerhouse.
One of you two teams, please, win by 40. Run up the score if you get the chance. See if you can sneak Braylon Edwards out there in Steve Breaston’s uniform, and do the same with Tom Brady in Chad Henne’s uniform. Eliminate any chance that a rematch could happen.
Via Deadspin, this New York Daily News article goes into some detail about new rules and regulations in the NBA that you might not have heard about. The league actually sent an official to a Knicks/Wizards game the other night to look for players who did any of the following:
– Untucked their shirt after being taken out of the game.
– Wore a rubber band with their name (or anyone else’s) on it.
– Chewed gum during the national anthem.
– Shifted and swayed as they stood in line listening to the national anthem.
But a little later in the article is the following quote, and this is what I find most interesting about the situation:
“The image problem is a subtle way of talking about black ballplayers and how they appear to the populace,” [Players Union boss Billy] Hunter said. “When we had our last round of negotiations, David told me that he was consulting with one of President Bush’s political consultants. The issue was, what they can do to make the game and players more appealing to the red states?”
I don’t know… a return to the days before Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton might help.
But there you go. The quote from Hunter explains quite a bit about David Stern and why he’s doing what he’s doing. We can dance around the issue by saying “image problem,” and “red states,” but the issue is right there. David Stern wants to sell the NBA to people who aren’t entirely comfortable with black people. That’s it.
It’s a complicated issue, and we’re not going to cover all of it. But there are people in the world who are fine with happy, smiling, non-confrontational black people like Wayne Brady… and not fine with other black people who doesn’t seem quite so non-threatening. That’s racism just the same, and David Stern is endorsing it by catering to those people.
And just because I enjoyed it… The Onion, indirectly, on similar issues.
This Is A Sitcom Waiting To Happen
Zach Randolph May Want To Give Kobe A Call
A woman has filed a civil lawsuit against Zach Randolph of the Portland Trailblazers, claiming that he, um… well, that he did a bunch of wild shit, some of which would make him a dirty, dirty, bastard… and some of which would make him a rapist. Henry Abbott at True Hoop went through the legal documents and found the following notes…
Randolph allegedly offered $500 to a women he knew, and another he didn’t, to perform a live sex show.
Randolph allegedly wasn’t happy with the sex show.
The plaintiff, having had a lot to drink, allegedly fell asleep.
The plaintiff allegedly woke up to Randolph, umm, forcing entry in the back door. Twice. Which she allegedly resisted and did not want.
Randolph then allegedly forces some more entry, through the front door.
The plaintiff allegedly went to the hospital too late to collect any rape evidence (after slightly more than three days).
This is all really surprising, because so many good things can happen when you offer complete strangers $500 to exchange bodily fluids in front of you. I’ve never heard of a situation like that ever going wrong. Weird.
My guess is that the woman will be paid off, and that the civil suit will go away. Might be expensive for Zach Randolph… but it’s the easy way out of things, he won’t be going to jail, and no one will be on television discussing where his pubic hairs might have been found.
But the upside is that he and Kobe Bryant will have something to talk about next time they shake hands before a tip-off.
Kobe: Sucks, doesn’t it?
Zach: Pssh. Hell yeah, it does.
Kobe: You’re gettin’ off easy, brother. Believe that.
Zach: (begrudging nod)
Week Ten Smorgasbord…
IN THE RIVER, BABY
Greg Schiano deserves some kind of lifetime achievement award. He’s got to be a lock for College Football Coach of the Year, but that’s not enough. Give him the Heisman, too, a couple of Daytime Emmys, a purple heart, an Arby’s employee of the month, and he should fill in for Jeff Gordon on his honeymoon. He’s earned it.
Coaching accomplishments just don’t get any more impressive than what Schiano’s done at Rutgers. Winning a national title at Miami or Notre Dame or USC… that’s great. But I think it’s probably a lot harder for a coach to step into a near-hopeless situation and turn it around to the point it’s at right now. He built this thing from the ground up. Started with nothing. Rutgers is so new to winning that when they went to dump the Gatorade on Schiano, they ended up clubbing him in the head with the cooler. Schiano thought he was being attacked.
Even if they had lost to Louisville, all of this would still apply. And I don’t think this is something that isn’t going to last. You look at how Schiano’s built this team, and why they’re as good as they are right now, and it’s not because they lucked into having a couple of great athletes, and this is going to fade away when the leave. They’ve done it by becoming a tough, physical team that controls the line of scrimmage and hits hard on defense.
So where do you put them now, if you’re a voter? Well, if Louisville or West Virginia deserved the #3 spot, then I’d find it difficult to believe that Rutgers hasn’t earned the same thing right now. They’re not going to get it, of course. I’m sure they’ll still be below Texas, Auburn, Florida, and USC … probably Notre Dame and Cal, as well.
Where you end up often has a lot to do with your starting point, and Rutgers didn’t have a great one. That’s terribly unfair, but… that’s the system we’ve carved out for ourselves here. It’s not about their strength of schedule, or anything like that… West Virginia and Louisville played similar schedules, and they had that #3 spot. Rutgers won’t, and it’s about starting point. It’s about the educated guesses of sportswriters, before the season, about how good Rutgers would be. That’s why Rutgers won’t get there. That’s the system we have. Like Will Munny says, “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.”
I’ve gotta admit, though… while I’m enjoying the Rutgers underdog story as much as anyone… I couldn’t help but think, anytime ESPN had a crowd shot, that about 40,000 of those people are brand new Rutgers fans. Two years ago, for a game this time of year, Rutgers probably wouldn’t have had a crowd of 20,000.
I’m glad people are hopping on the bandwagon now, but… considering past attendance figures against current ones, I’m putting a little extra emphasis on the word bandwagon. I suppose I shouldn’t judge… I can’t say for sure what I’d have done if I was a Rutgers student that was there for two years when they were terrible, and now they’re good, but I don’t think I’d have just ignored them then and started showing up to games now.
A Raiders fan made the following touching music video about Randy Moss:
The Things That Killed Pat Tillman
With Pat Tillman’s 30th birthday coming on Monday, and the Cardinals putting him in their ring of honor this weekend, the Associated Press has dug through a ton of Army evidence about how Pat Tillman was killed.
I actually don’t have a ton to say about it … I don’t feel qualified to speak on the issue, and I’m sure there are others out there who are more knowledgeable and have a deeper sense of outrage than me. But here are snippets of the AP’s findings, from this SI.com article. It’s not a lot of fun to read.
One of the four shooters, Staff Sgt. Trevor Alders, had recently had PRK laser eye surgery. Although he could see two sets of hands “straight up,” his vision was “hazy,” he said. In the absence of “friendly identifying signals,” he assumed Tillman and an allied Afghan — who also was killed — were enemy.
Another, Spc. Steve Elliott, said he was “excited” by the sight of rifles, muzzle flashes and “shapes.” A third, Spc. Stephen Ashpole, said he saw two figures, and just aimed where everyone else was shooting.
Tillman’s platoon had nearly run out of vital supplies, according to one of the shooters. They were down to the water in their CamelBak drinking pouches, and were forced to buy a goat from a local vendor. Delayed supply flights contributed to the hunger, fatigue and possibly misjudgments by platoon members.
A field hospital report says someone tried to jump-start Tillman’s heart with CPR hours after his head had been partly blown off and his corpse wrapped in a poncho; key evidence including Tillman’s body armor and uniform was burned.
Wow.
