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Patriots Fans Are Not Happy People
Posted by The Danza on May 16, 2008
Mr. John Tomase, you should probably pack your bags and get out of Boston. Judging by the 400+ comments (update: now over 800) written regarding your apology to the Patriots and its fans, I’d say your life is probably in danger. I read about 20 pages of the 40+ pages of comments and did not find one positive comment, and I’m sure these comments have been tamed since they’re on a newspaper’s website. All of the physical threats and vulgarity probably didn’t make it through moderation, meaning there could have been anywhere from 400-100,000 comments that weren’t published.
For those of you that don’t know, Tomase is the writer for the Boston Herald that broke the story on February 2, 2008, regarding the Patriots having taken film of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI. Well, after Matt Walsh turned in the tapes and none of them had the aforementioned walkthrough, Tomase had to do some serious insert-foot-into-mouth backtracking and apologizing, and a lot of it.
His apology is very in-depth and walks you through his thought process and “fact”-gathering. Unfortunately, his source turned out to be someone he was having a casual conversation with that said a friend of a friend told him that it was rumored that the Patriots had taped the walkthrough. Ummm….ok. What’s this I keep hearing sportswriters and journalists say regarding sports bloggers? That they have no sources, responsibility, or accountability? Well, you know where I’m going with this. Goodbye, Mr. Tomase. I didn’t even know who you were before February 2, 2008, nor do I care about the Patriots, but as an outside observer, I think it’s time for you to end the relationship with Patriots and its fans. The next article with your name in it in the Boston Herald might very well be your obituary.
Holy Friggin’ Crap!: Pete Carroll/Tim Floyd = Rick Neuheisel?
Posted by The Danza on May 15, 2008
As some of you may know, I have written a couple of articles regarding Reggie Bush’s NCAA infractions and ESPN’s general ignorance of the issue. Well, I have to give ESPN props for its breaking of the OJ Mayo story as well as its no holds barred style of investigating (as opposed to the Reggie Bush investigation where it seemed ESPN was satisfied sitting on the sidelines and letting Yahoo! Sports do the investigating on what could be the biggest story in college football since the death penalty was levied against SMU). But I digress…..
The main point of this post was only to post a link that I found today that shows the extent of USC’s problems under the current coaching staffs and athletic department. It is truly amazing what has happened to USC since 2001 when Pete Carroll was hired. Sure, this laundry list of issues was produced by a Bruins fan, but it’s all well-documented and linked, so everything checks out. Read up.
Isiah Thomas Has Got To Do Some ‘Splainin
Posted by The Danza on Apr 10, 2008
It appears that new Knicks President, Donnie Walsh, is not as convinced as Isiah Thomas is that the Knicks are headed in the right direction and well question Thomas regarding the lack of success recently in the organization.
“You can say I have an open mind as far as any conversation I’m going to have,” Walsh said. “I still don’t think we’ve played well, there’s a lot of things I want to talk about. So it’s not totally open. It’s not like I’m going in saying, ‘Well, this has all been great, so what do you want to talk about?’”
This is probably how the conversation will go between Walsh and The Smiling Assassin: Read the rest of this entry »
DeBracketed: The Departed Meets NCAA Tourney Office Pools
Posted by The Danza on Apr 4, 2008
Does This Guy Ever Learn???
Posted by The Danza on Apr 3, 2008
**Updated Below**
Another NFL offseason and another Chris Henry arrest story. This time he has a warrant out for his arrest for punching an 18-year old guy and then throwing a beer bottle through his car window. To be such a talented wide receiver, this guy is one dumb son of a bitch. Recently, Henry’s managed to get arrested four times in the span of 14 months and was suspended by Roger Goodell for half of last season for….well, assign each behavioral problem to a card in a playing deck and then draw one.
As a matter of fact, even just last week Henry was cited for driving with expired license plates on his car. Ok, let me ask you this. You’ve been arrested four times in the last two years and ticketed for driving with a suspended license, for which the group of people paying you money is not very happy about. Wouldn’t you think you’d be as careful as you could possibly be? Hell, just don’t leave your house for a few years. Anything. Have a lawyer personally escort you around 24 hours a day telling you what is legal and what is illegal. That’s the solution that I am offering up to Chris Henry. Get a full-time chaperone.
But, wait, Henry says that that’s not how it happened at all. Well, he said that to his agent, Marvin Frazier:
The player’s agent, Marvin Frazier, said Henry gave him a different version of events but declined to elaborate.
“I was told it didn’t happen that way,” Frazier said.
So, I guess there’s still hope that this is one giant misunderstanding. Call me judgmental, but when a guy has had this many run-ins with the police, I tend to assume the worst after the umpteenth time.
Even though Chad Johnson says that he’s ready to show up to camp and “embarrass whoever tries to cover him,” the Bengals cannot possibly be ready to “move on without him” after their 3rd WR has just been issued a warrant for his arrest on assault charges. Oh boy, more problems for the Bengals. At least they didn’t get caught on a yacht full of naked prostitutes and sex toys.
**Update**
It looks like the Bengals have wisely chosen to cut its ties from Henry after his fifth arrest since 2005. Yahoo! Sports
Ryan Perrilloux Back on the Team at LSU
Posted by The Danza on Mar 27, 2008
Well, a little over a month after Ryan Perrilloux was suspended indefinitely by Coach Les Miles for “unspecified team violations,” he is back from suspension and could be practicing again with the team as early as Monday, according an AP report on Yahoo! Sports. These unspecified team violations were later revealed by his high school coach and family to be missing classes to attend his father’s funeral without telling his coaches and missing a mandatory team meeting for reasons not directly related.
On one hand, Perrilloux has been plagued with problems since last May, when he was cited for trying to gain entry to a riverboat casino in Baton Rouge using his brother’s ID. After being reinstated in August, Perrilloux began to play an important role in LSU’s offense as he gave the defense a different look than Matt Flynn offering a type of “Tebow Package.” However, Perrilloux was suspended from practice for the week before the Alabama game in 2007 for the participation in a nightclub brawl. The latest suspension would have seemingly been a third strike.
On the other hand, one cannot rush to judge the extent of his violations. First of all, if it is true what his family and former coach say about his reasons for missing class, then I will forgive that. True, he should have given the coach’s notice, but when something that tragic happens in your life, you are not likely to be thinking of collegiate athletics as first priority. I do not know the reasons for missing the mandatory team meeting, but that’s an internal matter to deal with at LSU and will only affect the team’s and coaches’ respect for him and Perrilloux’s learning progress. I do not feel that missing a team meeting would be grounds for complete expulsion from the team, even after the rest of Perrilloux’s issues in the past.
In an effort not to be judgmental, I give Perrilloux the benefit of the doubt on this latest suspension, but one has to believe that Miles will be quick to pull the trigger if anything else happens that could affect his team’s cohesiveness. While I don’t blame Miles for his decision in this case, one has to ask this question: if this was T-Bob Hebert, 3rd-string red-shirt freshman center, would he still be on the team?
Top 50 Universities…..In Terms of Hotness
Posted by The Danza on Mar 25, 2008
The Popcrunch Show, a celebrity tabloid, has made it to the top of the Digg Sports Group this week with their list of the Top 50 Universities Ranked by Hotness. Not surprisingly, the SEC had six teams in the top 10 and eight in the top 20. We tend to be the best at most things physically oriented. Mentally, we may be lacking a little as a whole, but damnit, our guys can outrun and tackle your guys harder and our girls can wear bikinis better than your girls can, and that might just be all that matters.
Reggie Bush Hearing Postponed Until May 2
Posted by The Danza on Mar 25, 2008
Well, this is old news, but to quote Family Guy parodying NBC’s summer rerun campaign, “if I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me.” On March 10, the judge in the Reggie Bush case put the lawsuit on hold until May 2. At this point, the judge will hear a motion that will attempt to coerce Bush to testify.
Also according to this piece, the NCAA is believed to be at the end stage of its lengthy investigation into Bush’s wrongdoings while at USC and could be waiting until Bush testifies under oath to complete it. I don’t know about all of you (and by all of you, I mean the 10 people that read this), but I’m getting tired of waiting. Give the Heisman to Vince Young and get it over with.
Sports Illustrated Opens Its “Vault” Containing All Articles Ever Written…..For Free!
Posted by The Danza on Mar 19, 2008
Have you ever wanted to reread that article about Michael Jordan in the April 1990 edition of Sports Illustrated that made you dream of playing in the NBA one day? Well, now you can. Actually, you can even read about “yachts, polo, and safaris” in the August 16, 1954, edition (the very first issue).
This Thursday, Sports Illustrated is opening its archives containing every article ever written by the magazine. This is an extraordinary commitment to the digital age for the sports magazine to make, and I, for one, applaud them for this. The fact that they’re making this service free is icing on the cake. My current subscription to Sports Illustrated costs much more than free, and I look forward to canceling supplementing my paper magazines with retroactive readings online of 42-year old articles about Bart Starr and Super Bowl I.
I know what the first thought that went through your mind was, and I have to admit that it was my first as well. As soon as I saw the headline of the article in the NY Times, I clicked on it and did a quick “Find in this page” search for “swimsuit” to see if they were going to make photos from all of the past swimsuit editions available. While it said that “many images” will be included in the Vault, nowhere in the article did it even mention the word “swimsuit.” Keep your fingers crossed.
Eagles-Jaguars Summit League Championship Mascot Fight
Posted by The Danza on Mar 14, 2008
In other news, Oral Roberts won this game, the Summit League Championship, and secures its spot in the NCAA Tournament, but who really cares?