Red Right 88

17 Mar 2011

Owners Gone Wild

It’s been a weird week among team owners, starting at Craven Cottage in North London.

Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed announced plans this week to unveil a life-size, color statue of Michael Jackson outside Fulham’s home ground.

The statue, which overlooks the River Thames and stands between the Riverside and Hammersmith Stands at Craven Cottage, shows Jackson standing on his toes in what is being called an ‘iconic pose’. The words to his smash hit Thriller are engraved on the podium below.

We admit we don’t know much about Fulham’s history, other than they have a thing for signing American players, but this definitely sounds odd.

But we’ll let David Lloyd, editor of the popular fanzine There’s Only One F in Fulham, have the last word:

“If you has asked me if I wanted a statue of Michael Jackson at Craven Cottage I would have said ‘no.’ However, we owe an enormous debt to the chairman and if this is one of his whims, then that’s fine. As a football chairman he is one of the best; he’s been fantastic.”

OK then.

Closer to home, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert got loose again after the Cavs beat Sacramento for Cleveland’s 13th win of the season.

Gilbert took to Twitter to taunt Yahoo! Sports’ Kelly Dwyer, who had predicted the Cavs would only reach 12 wins on the season.

Gilbert reverted to his schoolyard days by asking “who is Kellie Dwyer?” and saying “Never heard of her.”

Oh boy.

We like Gilbert’s passion and willingness to spend money to try and make the Cavs better, but it seems as if the owner of a major professional sports team could act more maturely than a 14-year-old girl who just got dumped and is taking out her feelings on Facebook.

We first learned of the tweets at Ben Blog (check it out) and Waiting for Next Year weighed in as well with a good take.

But L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling wins the prize for this week’s for wackiest owner.

While testifying in Elgin Baylor’s wrongful termination civil trial against the team, Sterling claimed that he didn’t know of Baylor’s Hall of Fame career before hiring Baylor as vice president of player personnel in 1986.

Baylor was the NBA’s first overall pick in 1958 and a member of the league’s 50th anniversary team, was an 11-time All-Star who once scored 71 points in a game and brought the Lakers to the cusp of a title they would ultimately win the season he retired.

“I didn’t know that,” Sterling said according to The Los Angeles Times. “I hired him for $3,000 a month. I didn’t really know what his role was…. He was working in a mail-order company back then.”

What a goof.

***

Lost a little bit in the NFL’s labor issue, is a proposed rule change for next season that would potentially neutralize one of the Browns best scoring threats.

The league’s competition committee is expected to propose moving the kickoff up to the 35-yard line and bringing touchbacks out to the 25 – but only on kickoffs.

In addition, the kicker will be the only player allowed to line up more than five yards behind the ball and the committee will suggest outlawing the blocking wedge on kickoffs completely.

“The injury rate on kickoffs remains a real concern for us and the players and the coaches’ subcommittee,” Falcons president Rich McKay, the chairman of the competition committee, told ESPN.com. “This is a pretty major change.”

Opposing teams were already doing everything they could to kick the ball away from Josh Cribbs. Now with a shorter field to work with, the number of non-returnable kicks should increase, limiting Cribbs’ opportunity to handle the ball on kickoffs even more.

***

James Walker at ESPN.com weighs in with some good advice for the Browns in regard to their No. 1 pick on next month’s NFL Draft:

I agree that Georgia receiver A.J. Green is a tremendous prospect. But he’s not better than Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald. The aforementioned players are elite NFL receivers and they all played for losing teams in 2010. My point is the receiver position is not very important in the NFL hierarchy.

Games are won and lost in the trenches, and if you noticed, teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers take offensive and defensive linemen nearly every year. These are non-sexy draft picks that turn out to be huge when it’s time to play football.

Cleveland needs to start learning from the dominant teams in its division. President Mike Holmgren and general manager Tom Heckert drafted a lot of skill players last year and it’s time to add some meat to the NFL’s 27th-ranked run defense.

Makes a lot of sense. Here’s hoping Holmgren and Heckert are thinking along the same lines.

***

Finally, the NFL Network may start feeling some heat as players may be less than willing to appear on the network’s programs during the work stoppage because the network is owned by the league.

According to The New York Times, the NFL Players Association, which is now a trade association, has not advised players to boycott the network. But it is not pushing them to appear on it, either.

George Atallah, the association’s assistant executive director, told the paper, “My message is, regardless of the outlet, check with the association to get a sense for its previous coverage.”

Arizona kicker Jay Feely told the paper, “I wouldn’t go on there now. It’s a league-owned network, so I would take that stand. But other players can go on if they choose.”

We’ll admit, we didn’t see that one coming.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, crazy owners, Dan Gilbert, Fulham | Leave a comment

16 Mar 2011

Cleveland’s No. 1 newspaper, everyone

We were excited when we saw that Kent State beat St. Mary’s on the road last night in their opening game of the NIT.

But then we read the game article on The Plain Dealer‘s website.

The area’s largest newspaper couldn’t be bothered to send a beat writer to cover a local team playing in a national tournament (well, the NIT, but still) because, well we’re not sure why. Instead, they relied on the Associated Press for its coverage from the game at St. Mary’s McKeon Pavilion in Moraga, Calif.

We were surprised to find out, according to the article, that Kent State lost to Akron in the Horizon League title game and the Golden Flashes are apparently coached by someone named Geno Gord.

Give it up for Cleveland’s No. 1 newspaper folks!

It’s bad enough that someone from the AP couldn’t take 30 seconds to check the game notes to find out how to spell Gino Ford’s name correctly. But shouldn’t the PD have, we don’t know, an editor look at the story before it’s published? Especially since Kent State is a local team.

Maybe everyone on Superior Avenue is so tired from bashing The Cleveland Clinic, writing about themselves and chasing the ghost of Eric Mangini to actually care about getting the details right.

It’s clear, though, that at The Plain Dealer, God does not reside in the details. Jay Spry would be very, very disappointed.

Thankfully The Beacon Journal had its act together, as beat reporter Stephanie Storm put together an actual game story with the right names and everything.

Imagine that.

***

Do you have plans for the weekend? Grady Sizemore does.

Sizemore, the Tribe’s Gold Glove center fielder, could play in his first game in 10 months on Sunday.

“If everything continues to go well, and it’s going well, there’s a chance that Grady can start participating in games on March 20,” manager Manny Acta told The Plain Dealer. “I saw him [Tuesday] working on fundamentals, cutoffs, relays, chasing balls around in the outfield during batting practice like it was nothing. It was very encouraging.”

***

Bad day for sociopaths, as NFL vice president Ray Anderson said in a conference call Wednesday that the league will be even more stern in disciplining players next season, especially repeat offenders.

Bad news for the Steelers, who may now have to play football rather than playing to intentionally injure someone.

According to Anderson, many of those big hits that resulted in fines and personal fouls could lead to suspensions in 2011, which would hurt Pittsburgh in subsequent games.

We don’t see how that’s a problem. Do you?

***

Interesting response from Grant Hill, who didn’t hold back, to some of the comments Jalen Rose made in The Fab Five, a documentary shown Sunday night on ESPN.

We watched the program and thought Rose was pretty clear that his feelings about the type of black players that Duke recruits were how he felt as a freshman on the Michigan team – not how he feels now.

Apparently not everyone took the message that way.

Posted in bad reporting, Cleveland Indians, Fab Five, Grant Hill, Jalen Rose, NFL | Leave a comment

15 Mar 2011

Holmgren to fans: Keep Calm & Carry On

Browns President Mike Holmgren met the media on Monday and delivered a message to Browns fan that can be paraphrased as “keep calm and carry on.”

Holmgen said it’s “business as usual” for the team during the lockout.

“It is our feeling and hope that we will play football games [this season],” Holmgren told The Plain Dealer. “We’ve worked very, very hard to begin to establish a program that will win and we are proceeding along those lines.”

”I realize what I’m asking the Cleveland Browns fans to do because they’ve probably heard somebody say, ‘Hey, hang in there,’ for a little bit of time now. But in trying to be real straight with them, I am very, very encouraged about the direction of the football team,” Holmgren told The Beacon Journal. “This will get done, and we will play again. Stay rooting for your favorite team. It’s OK to get frustrated and ticked off on occasion, but the beauty of it is you’ll be there when the good times come.”

Good times? In Cleveland? Sign us up!

The problem is, no one knows when we will see football again. We’re still confident that, someway, there will be a season this fall, but no one really knows what impact the work stoppage will have on the Browns as they install new offensive and defensive systems.

Wisely, the Browns made sure quarterback Colt McCoy received a copy of the playbook before teams had to cut off contact with the players, which should pay off once teams can start practicing again.

“You can visualize yourself doing it and I think he can,” coach Pat Shurmur told The Plain Dealer. “When he gets more and more schooled in our approach, I think it’ll become more familiar and hopefully he’ll be happier and happier about it.

“I think he has the attributes that will make him a good quarterback in any system, especially our system. First and foremost is decision-making. If you have a guy that’s a bad decision-maker, he’ll always break your heart. But Colt’s a good decision-maker.”

We want to believe it’s just football and, since this is the NFL, the players will be able to pick up the new system somewhat easily. Shurmur sounds like he believes that to be the case.

“I guess I’m looking at it more as the glass as half-full than empty,” Shurmur said. “I feel as though the systems we’re teaching are proven. I’ve seen them be taught in a short amount of time. I’m not anxious about it.”

Well, that makes one of us, although it’s good to know the coaching staff isn’t in a panic.

***

Staying in Berea, Holmgren has some in a tizzy because he’s doing the proper thing by scouting and evaluating available college players – even quarterbacks.

“I think with our due diligence as an organization and a personnel department, it’s our obligation to evaluate the best players coming out of college football,” Holmgren said. “Cam Newton is one of those and so, yes, we are looking hard. It’s fun for me anyway; I’ve told you this before.”

This is a good thing; we’re not sure why some can’t see that.

***

Speaking of doing their due diligence, Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller will reportedly visit the Browns in April.

After his strong combine and pro day, Miller is earning a lot of interest among the teams at the top of the draft and is considered by many the top linebacker in the draft.

***

Finally, happy birthday to Liverpool FC!

The club was founded on this day in 1892 by John Houlding, owner of the Anfield stadium. Houlding needed a team for the grounds following a disagreement with Everton that saw the Toffees move to Goodison Park, so Houlding started Liverpool.

Eighteen league titles and five European Cups later, the club is still going strong.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Colt McCoy, Keep calm, Liverpool, Mike Holmgren, NFL draft | Leave a comment

14 Mar 2011

Have the Cavs quit on the season?

We knew it was going to be a long year for the Cavaliers as the team goes through the beginning stages of the rebuilding process.

And we know because of injuries and trades the team has been forced to give significant minutes to several players who may not be ready yet (or ever).

But that doesn’t excuse the team’s continued lack of effort on the court.

“I’m really starting to question what type of heart we have as a basketball team,” coach Byron Scott told The Plain Dealer following Sunday’s loss to Oklahoma City. “If you are a competitor, no matter what the situation is, no matter what the year has brought, you’re going to come in and compete every single night. We haven’t done that the last two games. That’s my biggest question: Do we have enough guys in that locker room right now that have heart and some other things to go out there and play the way they’re supposed to play?”

That’s not good, especially since Scott has been preaching that message since the start of the season. And if the players start falling into bad habits now, it will take that much longer to break them out of those habits when this team is ready to start winning again.

Is the team just playing out the string with 17 games left in the season?

“I’m hoping they’re not thinking that way because we’re not thinking that way,” Scott said. “We’ve got to come in every day and try to figure out a way to keep these guys motivated and keep these guys working. I’m hoping they’re not all looking at the schedule and going, ‘OK, April 13, the season’s over and we can take a deep breath and enjoy our summer.’ I don’t necessarily put that past a bunch of the guys on the team right now, but I hope that’s not the case.”

Hopefully Daniel “Boobie” Gibson is right when he says the team still cares.

“I think they really care about winning and playing the right way,” Gibson told The PD. “It’s a matter of when you want to play the right way, you have to know how to play the right way. We have a lot of young guys, and it takes time. It takes time to learn what it takes to play at this level. I think sometimes it might come off that way [lacking heart], but I think guys on this team really care.”

***

Looks like we’ll have to wait a while longer for the Lonnie Chisenhall era to begin at Progressive Field.

Chisenhall was among seven players the Indians sent back to the minor-league camp on Tuesday, ending the third baseman of the future’s attempt to have the future start now.

“Lonnie has had a very good camp, but he has some development to do,” Tribe general manager Chris Antonetti told The Beacon Journal. “He needs to be a little more consistent against left-handed pitchers and do a better job of knowing the strike zone. Defensively, he is still learning the nuances of third base after being a shortstop.”

That’s probably true, but we can’t help shake the feeling that delaying the start of Chisenhall’s service time on the Major League level played a large part in the decision.

”That definitely is not the case,” Antonetti told The Beacon Journal. “We meet at the end of every season and talk about each of our guys. Every person thought that Lonnie had further development to do. If he was that far advanced, he would already have been to Triple-A.”

Whether it played a role or not, it’s evident that under the current reality of baseball’s payroll discrepancies questions about service time are going to be a part of the Tribe’s decision-making process.

It would be great if the team could make decisions based only on baseball, but that’s not our Tribe in 2011.

***

Good luck to the University of Akron, who will take on Notre Dame in their opening game of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

The Zips lucked out as they could have been scheduled to play the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday. Now they catch the Irish on Friday, when the Notre Dame players may be a step slow from being meat-deprived because it’s Lent.

As for Kent State, they will open up NIT play Tuesday night at St. Mary’s.

Posted in Byron Scott, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Kent State, Lonnie Chisenhall | Leave a comment

13 Mar 2011

3 Comments

NCAA gives Cinderella a shocker

Instead of fitting her for a glass slipper, the NCAA gave Cinderella a shocker on Selection Sunday.

Of the 37 at-large bids for the NCAA basketball tournament, only seven went to teams not in major conferences, one fewer than last year even though there were three more spots available in the expanded field.

St. Mary’s, which went 25-8, shared the regular season West Coast Conference title with Gonzaga and lost in the conference title game? Sorry. We need to see four teams that finished at .500 in the Big Ten (Michigan, Illinois, Penn State and Michigan State) instead.

Missouri State, also 25-8 and, at 15-3, the regular season champs of the Missouri Valley Conference? No room for you after your four-point loss in your conference title game. We need to see 14-loss USC, which suspended and then reinstated its coach this week for inappropriate behavior, instead.

And forget about Kent State. Regular season titles and overtime losses in your conference championship game don’t mean anything when you play in the Mid-American Conference. No sir, we need 11 teams from the Big East, including another pair of .500 teams in Villanova and Marquette (both 9-9 in conference play).

This year we’re stuck with five teams with at least 14 losses – all from major conferences – after only having six total make the tournament with that many losses from 1985 to 2010.

What a joke.

The game is obviously rigged to favor the big schools. If you’re from a major conference, you can play your way into the NCAA tournament if you play well in your conference tournament (see Penn State), but you can’t really play your way out (33 points total in a game Wisconsin? Seriously?)

That same opportunity doesn’t exist for the mid-major schools – one slip up and they’re gone.

By not even giving the little guys an opportunity, the NCAA robs fans of the best part of the tournament – seeing an underdog hang close and/or upset a higher-seeded team. Think about it: whenever a lower seed has a second-half lead, the crowd almost always swings its support to the underdog. Just remember Butler’s run to the title game last year.

Wait a minute … that actually may explain this year’s selections. After the Bulldogs came so close to pulling off the biggest upset in tournament history last year, the NCAA must have gotten scared of the thought of a team that’s not at the top of their preferred list winning it all.

Well, they did their best to ensure that won’t happen this year.

Gene Smith, Ohio State’s athletic director and chairman of the selection committee, tries to explain the committee’s “logic” here.

And here are some facts and figures about this year’s tournament.

***

Now that the NFL has locked out the players and the players have filed a lawsuit that makes us have to remember the Sherman Antitrust Act from high school history class, we’re left to wonder how much a prolonged work stoppage will impact the Browns.

ESPN’s James Walker believes the Browns will be one of the most affected teams:

Cleveland has a rookie head coach (Pat Shurmur) and a young quarterback (Colt McCoy) and will switch systems on offense and defense.

Cleveland hasn’t run a 4-3 defense since 2004. The team also has to make alterations in personnel to fit the scheme. With free agency delayed, the draft becomes even more important for the Browns to fix weaknesses, particularly on the defensive line.

A West Coast offense is all about timing, and McCoy will not get the usual amount of offseason preparation to learn the new playbook and work with his coaches and teammates. Whenever a new collective bargaining agreement is reached, Cleveland needs to make up for lost time ASAP.

Just another day in Cleveland sports paradise.

So instead of reading about mini-camps and OTAs, get ready for a bunch of stories like this one.

Posted in big team bias, Cleveland Browns, NCAA tournament, NFL

13 Mar 2011

Golden Flashes miss chance to go dancing

Crap.

Kent State lost what was probably its only chance to make the NCAA Tournament, losing the MAC final in overtime to Akron.

Now, despite being the conference’s regular season champion and winning 23 games, the Golden Flashes will probably not get a spot in the tournament so that we can watch teams like Michigan State (14 losses) or Marquette (11th in the Big East) go out and lose their opening games.

If the MAC only gets one bid again this year it just reinforces the bias the selection committee shows the big conferences at the expense of some good teams. Schools from the Big Ten, SEC or ACC lose in their conference tournaments and are still selected because of their “body of work.”

But when a school from a mid-major conference loses in its tournament, then the regular season has no impact.

And people think the BCS is messed up.

***

We’re going to break format to recommend a non-sports book that we are currently reading.

A Secret Gift by former Canton resident Ted Gup tells the story of Mr. B. Virdot, who placed an advertisement in The Canton Repository a week before Christmas in 1933 asking residents to write to him about their financial troubles and how they would spend the money if he helped them. Within days the Post Office received thousands of letters and B. Virdot mailed out 150 checks for $5 each to families across town.

Gup spent two years tracking down the descendants of the letter writers, conducting more than 500 interviews and sifting through thousands of pages of deeds, marriage licenses, census reports, obituaries and death certificates. The letters and Gup’s research became the basis of the book.

While the story is set in the Great Depression, it reaffirms our believe that there are few places better than NE Ohio.

For more information, check out this story and this one.

***

In what continues to be a long week in Ohio State land comes news that ESPN analyst and former Buckeye quarterback Kirk Herbstreit and his family have been forced to move out of their home in central Ohio because of the constant criticism he has received from OSU fans who don’t understand how life works.

“Nobody loves Ohio State more than me,” Herbstreit told The Columbus Dispatch. “I still have a picture of Woody Hayes and my dad (Jim, a former OSU player) in my office, and nobody will do more than I do for the university behind the scenes. But I’ve got a job to do, and I’m going to continue to be fair and objective. To continue to have to defend myself and my family in regards to my love and devotion to Ohio State is unfair.”

Stay classy Buckeye fans. (h/t Waiting for Next Year)

Posted in crappy Big Ten, Kent State, Ohio State | Leave a comment

11 Mar 2011

Can’t we all get along?

Somehow, the NFL and the NFL Players Association were not able to decide after 16 days of work with a federal mediator how to divide up the league’s $9 billion revenue pie.

Now we’re left to wonder what’s next and when (if?) we will see the Browns and the rest of the league on the field again.

The players association has filed papers to decertify, effectively disbanding the union and giving it the chance to sue under antitrust laws if there is a lockout.

“They have chosen to choose another strategy, and that is their choice,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in published reports.

According to a statement from the NFL, the players’ union left a good deal on the table, including:

An offer to narrow the player compensation gap that existed in the negotiations by splitting the difference;
A guarantee to reallocate savings from first-round rookies to veterans and retirees without negatively affecting compensation for rounds 2-7;
Ensure no compensation reduction for veterans;
Implement new year-round health and safety rules;
Retain the current 16-4 season format for at least two years with any subsequent changes subject to the approval of the league and union;
Establish a new legacy fund for retired players ($82 million contributed by the owners over the next two years).
A reduction in offseason programs of five weeks (from 14 to nine) and of OTAs (Organized Team Activities) from 14 to 10;
Significant reductions in the amount of contact in practices.

Sounds pretty good to us.

The union responded:

The NFL Players Association announced today it has informed the NFL, NFL clubs and other necessary parties that it has renounced its status as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of the players of the National Football League.

The NFLPA will move forward as a professional trade association with the mission of supporting the interests and rights of current and former professional football players.

So, for now, there is no free agency and no trades, and while there will still be a draft in April, drafted players can have no further contact with their new teams after draft day beyond the traditional congratulatory phone call.

Just great.

***

Oh, Stan? You won’t see him no more.

***

Some cool old program covers from the Indians.

We especially like the one of Chief Wahoo using his baseball bat as an arrow to aim at opposing American League teams. (h/t to UniWatch)

***

Finally, Phillip Morris at The Plain Dealer weighs in on the hypocrisy of the gumbo of lies Jim Tressel has been cooking at Ohio State:

In recent years, Ohio State has gone out of its way to project itself as a bastion of good sportsmanship. It has educated and encouraged players to demonstrate a respect for opponents, the law, the university and NCAA rules. It has made quite a show of doing this.

When the school hosted the U.S. Naval Academy to open the 2009 season, for instance, the teams lined up in the south end zone together. Tressel shook the hand of each midshipman, looked him in the eye and thanked him for his service to country. Then both teams ran onto the field together.

But it’s all been a farce. Two prominent players were then or subsequently breaking NCAA rules. They were consciously profiting from the sales of memorabilia that compliance officers had warned them against. They were consorting with at least one character who exposed the entire program to a high degree of risk.

What that means is the players were only pretending to be good sports. The same with the coach.

Tressel was only pretending to be a good sportsman. He knew what was happening. But he sat for months last year on information that he knew could cause serious harm to his 2010-2011 season. He sat on information that could harm his win-loss record and ultimately his financial future.

And Christopher Cicero, the Columbus lawyer who sent the e-mails to Tressel in April, revealed he’s received death threats since the story broke earlier this week.

Way to stay classy Buckeye fans.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Jim Tressel, NFL, Ohio State | Leave a comment

10 Mar 2011

Golden Flashes drawing NFL interest

Nine NFL teams, including the Browns, Ravens and Steelers, were represented at Kent State’s pro day this week.

Not a big surprise as the Flashes had 10 players in the NFL last season, including former Pro Bowlers Antonio Gates and Joshua Cribbs and 2008 defensive player of the year James Harrison.

Ten players and no NCAA violations. Maybe a certain school to the south should take notes.

Several eyes were on defensive end Monte’ Simmons, who finished his Kent State career with 21.5 sacks and 38.5 tackles for losses.

”He looks the part; he’s a specimen,” Raymond Jackson, Pittsburgh’s director of player development, told The Beacon Journal. ”He reminds me so much of Courtney Brown. Size-wise, he’s a rare specimen. If you go off of looks, he’s a day-one guy. The film doesn’t lie. If he can play he’s going to be on somebody’s roster.”

”I still feel like I had more in me to show,” said Simmons. ”I have another pro day on March 15, just to get myself seen more.”

Watch, the Steelers or Ravens will probably take a chance on him and Simmons will torment the Browns for the next 10 years.

Scouts were also looking at safety Brian Lainhart, who had 17 interceptions and 344 tackles as a four-year starter, and middle linebacker Cobrani Mixon.

***

According to Paul Hoynes at The Plain Dealer, Nick Johnson is expected to arrive this week at spring training for the Indians.

The oft-injured Johnson is recovering from wrist surgery and is still a few weeks away from being able to swing a bat. The minor-league deal he signed with the Indians has a July 1 out clause. If he isn’t in the big leagues by then, he can become a free agent.

If the Indians bring him to the big leagues, he’ll make $750,000. They can exercise a club option for 2012 worth $2.75 million. He can earn another $1.75 million in plate appearances.

Please don’t hurry back, Nick. No seriously, there’s no rush.

***

Every once in a while we feel a little guilty that we are not more adventurous. But then we read stories like this and realize that’s not such a bad thing:

A Weipa (Australia) fisherman desperately held on to a tree and screamed for help from his mates as a monster croc bit into his legs and tried to pull him under the water.

Rangers will converge on Weipa today to try to catch the aggressive croc that attacked Rio Tinto mine worker Todd Bairstow, 28, as he was fishing on the banks of Trunding Creek yesterday.

Mr Bairstow was fishing in the creek near Albatross Bay Resort, about 4.10pm, when the crocodile lunged at him and tore off his finger.

The crocodile lunged again, grabbed his legs and tried to pull him into the water.

A Queensland Police spokesman said while the man suffered extensive lacerations and dislocated bones, his injuries were not life-threatening.

Yeah, maybe hanging out on the couch isn’t such a bad idea after all. (h/t to Deadspin)

***

Good news as Browns running back Montario Hardesty’s recovery from a knee injury that cost him his rookie season is progressing nicely.

“Rehab is going well,” Hardesty said on the team’s website. “I think I have a little bit of work still left to get myself there. I wouldn’t say I’m well ahead of schedule, but it’s coming along great. I just have a little bit of a ways to go before I’m back to 100 percent.”

If Hardesty can give the Browns anything this season it will be much appreciated, especially by Peyton Hillis, who wore down by the end of the last. (h/t to Waiting for Next Year)

***

Not surprisingly, Zydrunas Ilguaskas is planning to retire after this season.

“I think I’ve had enough of this game,” Ilguaskas told alietuvis.com. “I’ve played enough. Sitting on the bench doing nothing is not what I want to do. The long trips and the intensive schedule have taken its toll – I’m not a 20-year-old anymore and my body is telling me that it would be the right time to retire from NBA after this season. I have given everything I could to basketball and now I’d like to spend more time with my family.”

It can’t be fun for Z to be riding the bench for a Heat team that is not as good as the Cavs teams Z played on the past two years.

***

Finally, this from The New York Times gave us a good chuckle.

Turns out Jim Tressel had to cancel a book signing appearance the other night to try and explain the web of lies he’s weaving at Ohio State.

Tressel was promoting his book, Life Promises for Success: Promises From God on Achieving Your Best.

It’s been a while since we were regulars in church, but we did go to a parochial school through eighth grade and we’re pretty sure lying to your bosses wasn’t one of those life promises.

Posted in bad ideas, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, culture of lies, Kent State, Ohio State | Leave a comment

10 Mar 2011

Honoring a team that does it the right way

After yesterday’s news about the culture of lies that surrounds Jim Tressel and the Ohio State football program, we need to take a moment to recognize a coach and an athletic program that truly does things the right way.

Congratulations are in order for Kent State basketball coach Geno Ford, who was named the Mid-American Conference’s Coach of the Year, and Justin Greene, the Flashes’ junior center, who was named Player of the Year in the MAC.

Ford took a team with only three returning players and repeated as MAC regular season champions, the first conference team to pull off the feat since Ball State in 1988-89. And he did it without being confused about doing what is right versus doing what is easy.

Seven times since 1999, KSU has had the MAC Coach of the Year – going to four different men.

Kent State has had 11 seasons of at least 20 victories in the last 12 years, five NCAA and five NIT appearances. They have had four coaches, and the worst record since 1999 was 19-15 in 2008-09, Ford’s first season.

And they’ve done it all without cutting corners or lying to their bosses.

Greene averaged 15.6 ppg and delivered 10 double doubles, including the last three games of the season.

The Flashes open conference tournament play Thursday night against Buffalo at the Q.

The Bulls are going to be a tough out, as the two teams have split their two regular-season games for the past three seasons.

But we’re confident the Flashes are going to get it done the right way. The Kent State way.

***

Remember Subbuteo? Sure you do.

EPL Talk reports there there is a documentary about the legendary table soccer game in the works and scheduled for release this year.

Definitely going in the Netflix queue.

***

Lonnie Chisenhall keeps doing his part to make it tough on Indians manager Manny Acta during spring training.

If he keeps it up, it will be interesting to see what the Indians will do. Because of their silly signing of Orlando Cabrera to play second base, the Indians are in a situation where they are trying force Jason Donald, a natural short stop to play third base, blocking Chisenhall.

Why the Indians don’t just go with an infield of Chisenhall at third, Donald and short and Asdrubal Cabrera at second is baffling.

***

Finally, good news from Terry Pluto, who reports that Joe Tait is hoping to be back calling the Cavs game on March 21.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, culture of lies, Geno Ford, Kent State, Ohio State, Subbuteo | Leave a comment

08 Mar 2011

What Ohio State Really Lost Today

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons. – Thomas Hardy

It turns out that, despite the daylong cries of Ohio State apologists, that the Yahoo! Sports investigation alleging that Ohio State coach Jim Tressel knew players were selling memorabilia more than eight months before the school claims it knew of the shenanigans is true.

Tressel has been suspended two games and fined $250,000 for violating NCAA rules. He will also have to attend compliance seminar and make a public apology.

Oh no, not a public apology!

During the press conference to announce the suspension, Tressel tried to deflect what he did by going off on a rambling tangent about … something. A federal drug-trafficking case? Murdered players? We’re still not sure.

Tresell, the school and OSU toadies can spin it any way they want (there’s no conspiracy against Ohio State people), but Tressel knew the players were up to shenanigans, didn’t think anyone would find out, and got caught in a lie.

He should have just owned his mistake instead of embarrassing himself and the school.

It can be argued, with some merit, that what Tressel did is small potatoes compared to all the shenanigans run on a daily basis in big-time college athletics (see Cam Newton & Auburn or Reggie Bush & USC).

But that misses the point.

Ohio State and Tressel have presented themselves as being better than other schools, never more so than when they made a sham of the initial violation by not suspending the players involved for the Sugar Bowl. On that day, Tressel confused doing what’s easy with doing what’s right. That seems to be a common theme with him.

That came on the heels of school president E. Gordon Gee making a fool of himself by acting superior to schools like TCU and Boise State, saying the Buckeyes don’t play “the Little Sisters of the Poor” but rather “very fine schools.”

No offense to the University of Akron, but the Zips aren’t exactly a football powerhouse and they are on the Buckeyes schedule next year. But hey, let’s not let facts get in the way here.

Ohio State can’t beat the top teams in the nation on the field – Florida, LSU, Texas and USC all have proven that – and now they can’t lay claim to beating those schools off the field either.

That’s what the Buckeyes have truly lost in all this – they can no longer take the moral high ground. They are just another team doing what they have to do to win games.

And the thing is, there’s nothing wrong with that.

We realized long ago that college athletics is a business. Some still struggle with that, but it’s true. The Norman Rockwell view of student-athletes playing for the letter jacket and heading to the malt shoppe to make time with their best girl after the big game is so antiquated to be laughable.

The pressure to succeed at a school like Ohio State is clearly immense. And people make mistakes. This doesn’t mean Tressel is a bad person or a bad coach. He made a mistake and he’s going to pay the price. Anyone calling for more than what he got as punishment is a fool.

It just might be time for the Buckeyes to consider moving out of that glass house before someone really gets hurt.

***

Lot’s more on this in some really good pieces:

Jason Lloyd at The Beacon Journal nailed the issue in his column: OSU’s Tressel piles lies on top of lies

Ray Ratto at CBSSports.com: Ohio State doesn’t much give a damn about your outrage

Stewart Mandel at SI: Don’t buy Tressel and Ohio State’s defense for coach’s violation

Bill Livington at The PD: Lame defense affirms winning is the only thing that matters for Jim Tressel, Ohio State

Posted in Jim Tressel, moral failings, Ohio State | Leave a comment