Author: Vin

Vin is a Philly boy who shouldn't be invited into your house because he'll judge you on your book and music collection. He owns Dawkins, Utley, Iverson, and Lindros jerseys, which is all you really need to know about him. He can be reached at [email protected].

Categories
College Basketball

E-E-F-G-C-A-G-G: It’s gold, Jerry, gold!

Usually the only music we notice during sports telecasts are snippets of pop/rock songs that we suspect are picked out by interns and floated up the flag pole. Sometimes you get cool stuff (Seven Nation Army) and sometimes you get the latest nickelback song (more on this below*). In any case, the song that’s been drilled into our brains for four days last week, and will be for another four days starting today is the CBS college basketball theme song.

In case you can’t think of what it sounds like, here’s an mp3 file:

Bob Christianson wrote the theme back in 1992 and, according to this article, composers can make as much as $100,000 per year of such a song from royalties. $100k! For something he did 25 years ago.


Christianson said he doesn’t tell many folks that he composed the NCAA theme, but occasionally he can’t resist a moment of self-promotion when he enters a sports bar during March and hears the theme blaring on TV.

He may tell the nearest patron: “I just made another two dollars.

This is rather amusing as everytime we hear the opening theme music to a basketball game, we’re about to lose $100.

*Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens were hanging out backstage with Nickelback. We’ve never liked Clemens but Tiger Woods just dropped out of our Top 10 athletes for having terrible taste in music.

Links:

[Baltimore Sun]: The perfect score

Categories
St. Louis Cardinals

Tony La Russa done in by that one last drink


Tony La Russa was arrested around midnight last night after failing a DUI test… just barely. The legal limit in Florida is .080 and La Russa registered at .093 on the breathalyzer. But stats aside, you know the real reason La Russa was busted for DUI? His car was stopped at an intersection but still in drive and he was asleep (and we imagine drooling) with his foot on the brake.

Not only did La Russa almost make it under the .08 limit, he was almost home. The intersection where he fell asleep was only half a mile from his house. A shot of Red Bull would have kept him going those extra 2 minutes and he would have avoided all this embarassment and bad publicity.

Links:
[STLToday]: La Russa arrested on drunk-driving charge

Categories
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Odds and Ends: In case you want to get Jeff Garcia something for his wedding


Some guy over at the Fanhouse did some top-notch investigative journalism and found Jeff Garcia and Carmella DeCesare’s wedding registry on Williams-Sonoma. For a guy who just signed a $7M contract, Garcia’s registry is somewhat normal. Outside of a $1,600 knife set (on sale for $1,200!), it’s like a registry you’d find for poor people. (Poor relative to NFL players poor, not we’re registered at K-Mart poor.)

Anyone want to chip in on some Blueberry Waffle & Pancake Mix? Only $9.50 plus shipping!

In other news…

[AP]: EU wants barriers to sports bets lifted. (meanwhile we can’t even legally have an office pool)

[Seal Clubbers]: Seattle closes the door on Jerramy Stevens

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: Hey at least he didn’t wait till he was 24 like Shaun Alexander

[Newsday]: Bob Uecker’s stalker is back!

[Awful Announcing]: Does this mean we have to hate UNC now?

[49ers News]: Look out Niners fans, Rosenhaus is trying to ruin your team

Categories
Indianapolis Colts

Tony Dungy isn’t anti anything, except the gays


He’s no Tim Hardaway but isn’t Tony Duny basically saying the same thing? During a speech at a fundraising dinner for the Indiana Family Insitute, a group that supports a constitution amendment banning gay marriages, Dungy said, “I appreciate the stance they’re taking, and I embrace that stance.” Dungy is smart enough to couch it as pro-family instead of anti-gay but it’s essentially the same thing.


IFI is saying what the Lord says. You can take that and make your decision on which way you want to be. I’m on the Lord’s side. We’re not anti- anything else. We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we’re trying to promote the family — family values the Lord’s way.

It’s the Lord’s way or the (hershey) highway! Basically Tony Dungy, who thanked all the great fans in Indy after the Super Bowl thinks that the gay ones are evil and will burn in hell. We’re not sure that’s the type of fan appreciation they were looking for.

Links:
[Indy Star]: Dungy: ‘I embrace’ same-sex marriage ban
[Out Sports]: Dungy proudly announces opposition to gay marriage

Categories
Tennessee Titans

Pacman Jones might have less money to make it rain



Take a bite out of crime!

It has been speculated for a couple of weeks now but Don Banks at Sports Illustrated is reporting that the NFL is going to set an example by suspending Pacman Jones, not for his role in the Las Vegas strip club triple shooting, but for failing to tell the Titans about two 2006 arrests in Georgia which violates the personal conduct clause in his contract.

According to a source in the league office:


We can’t tell the Titans that he won’t play for them ever again, because the Titans, at the end of the day, will determine his long-term future. But the league will determine his short-term future. You should see something within a two or three-week time frame, and I would think you could expect a multiple-game suspension, or as much as a year or beyond.

The suspension could come immediately after the owners meetings next week in Arizona. Pacman is unlikely to get any support from the Players Association as commissioner Roger Goodell has worked closely with NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw on writing the new personal conduct guidelines and has the support of a lot of the veterans.

Links:
[SI]: Time to get tough

Categories
College Basketball

OJ Mayo doesn’t give out his cell. He’ll call you.


You know those fluff pieces in newspapers that try to persuade you that an athlete’s reputation is undeserved and that he’s really a good guy? This isn’t one of those. If Lee Jenkins was trying to paint OJ Mayo in a good light, he absolutely fails in today’s New York Times article on the kid.

The article relates how a OJ Mayo came to sign with USC and it doesn’t exactly portray USC coach Tim Floyd in a flattering light either.


When Floyd answered the phone, he heard a teenager’s voice on the other end: “Coach, this is O. J. Mayo. I’d like to come to your school.”

Mayo had not been on an official campus visit. He had not seen the new arena, the Galen Center. He did not know anything about the current roster.

…
“I want to be different,” Floyd recalls Mayo telling him. “I want to leave a mark.”

Mayo’s mind was apparently made up. He was already looking ahead. “How many scholarships do we have for next year?” he asked.

Floyd stammered. “After this,” he said, “I guess we have three.”

Mayo went through the priority list in his mind. “Don’t worry about recruiting,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

Before Floyd hung up, he asked one more time for Mayo’s cellphone number. “No,” Mayo said. “I’ll call you.

Now this is after one of Mayo’s friends had visited Floyd earlier in the day and told him that OJ wanted to market himself before going to the NBA and that the reason OJ wanted to go to USC was because LA gave him the best possible platform for doing so.

Basketball phenoms today are too worried about becoming a global icon and marketing and shoe deals, all before they play a second of pro ball. Sure Michael Jordan is the most recognized athlete in the world but he played for the love of the game and then everything else (colognes, clothing, Hanes, Space Jam) followed. OJ Mayo is more worried about his endorsement deals than he is about the game.

Now every sycophant and parasite in his entourage will just tell him that we’re just hatin’ but you can make a lot of money and not come off as an arrogant punk.

By the way, OJ’s first visit to USC? There was a documentary film crew following him. Of course.

Links:
[New York Times]: High School Star O.J. Mayo Boosts U.S.C. Before He Arrives
[SC]: OJ Mayo’s last dunk video

Categories
College Basketball

Does Kevin Durant already have a Nike shoe deal on the table?



Already sporting Nike

If there’s any question whether Kevin Durant is going to go pro this season, a phone call from Kobe might have sealed the deal. According to Chip Brown of the Dallas Morning News, Kobe Bryant called Nike on behalf of Nike to pitch a shoe deal between $30M to $50M. (“Hey Kevin, I can’t wait till you come into the league so I can elbow you in the head. Oh, by the way, Phil Knight wants to give you $50M. “)

Based on the NBA rookie salary scale, Durant will make about $11M-$12.5M his first three years in the league. And here comes Nike throwing three times that just for promoting a shoe. It’s not LeBron’s $90M deal but it’s almost a guarantee that he will leave Texas.

We think they should let players get their own shoe deals in college. This way they won’t have to leave early so that they risk injury in the college game. What would Rick Barnes rather have? A team wide shoe deal for the Longhorns or Kevin Durant for 3 more years?

Links:
[Dallas Morning News]: Sneaker deal could be deciding factor if Durant is one-and-done

Categories
High School Sports

Is OJ Mayo a showboat?

Check out this nifty dunk from OJ Mayo. What a way to end a high school career huh? Unfortunately, many saw it as hotdogging and showing up the other team. If OJ played baseball, he would’ve gotten a fastball to the head on his next at-bat. Here, he only gets a technical. So the question is, is OJ Mayo a showboat and a punk, or was he simply entertaining the crowd and having some fun in his last game?

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends: The Worldwide Runner Up in Online Sports!



The new king

Duh duh duh… duh duh duh. It seems that FoxSports has overtook ESPN.com in the Nielsen NetRatings. The 800 lb gorilla has been stepped over. This story is getting a ton of play in the blogosphere because bloggers hate ESPN. While Fox Sports, The Sporting News, and especially AOL Sports embraced bloggers, ESPN gave them the finger.

This news that ESPN.com has been dethroned might have been the reason why ESPN.com’s Editor in Chief was relegated to a lesser role yesterday. Seems that the bad karma associated with stealing scoops finally caught up with them. Now if only Versus would get their shit together, we might have an alternative to Sportscenter and Stu “Boo Yah” Scott.

In other news…

[Techdirt]: Why Blacking Out March Madness Online Doesn’t Make Sense

[SignOnSanDiego]: when a Terrell Owens or Michael Vick or Antonio Gates jersey is sold, each of the 32 NFL teams gets about 11 cents.

[isporty]: Top 10 Dirty Sports Names (How is Lucious Pusey not #1?)

[Farther Off the wall]: Which Dodgers monkey/intern designed this tshirt?

And finally, we have two random items. First is this excellent video of Ricky Gervais being brillaint. And second is this tidbit from the New York Post: “New York Ranger Brendan Shanahan was blindfolded and ball-gagged as trannies danced around him.” Sounds like a great time.

Categories
Atlanta Falcons

Is there more to the Patrick Kerney rape story?


We were going to let this rape story go quietly into the night. Or at least quietly into the daily Odds and Ends entry. But it seems that there might be more to this story than was originally reported.

According to newspaper reports, a female friend of Patrick Kerney’s went to a party and invited some guys back to Kerney’s place for a night cap. She then fell asleep on the sofa and woke up in the bedroom where the suspect was having sex with her. She then escaped by telling the suspect that she was going to get a friend to join in and escaped through the bathroom window. (Ahhh, the old promise of the threesome foils the rapist story.) Kerney said that he has been informed of the assault but was asleep at the time and the victim said that Kerney was not involved.

Seems like a pretty cut and dried story right? Girl invites the wrong guys back to her place and someone slips her a roofie and rapes her. Well, we’ll let the big lead do the rumor mongering.


Our Georgia tipster says that Atlanta radio is buzzing with rumors and innuendo. “The Lodge, where the party started, was the big happening with [Kerney’s] former teammates. Then the afterparty went to his house. Word is the suspect was african american and a former player.” We’ll keep the updates coming as we get them.

Yikes, more bad news for the NFL. With Pacman Jones and the Bengals already blazing up the arrest charts, the last thing Roger Goodell needs is another black eye. By the way, “african american and a former player”? That rules out Morton Anderson.

Links:
[Seattle PI]: Woman friend of Seahawk is assaulted