NCAA Saturday

Since Friday, five top ten teams were upset. West Virginia thought to have as much offensive talent as any team in the country, was shut down by South Florida. Now, if you’re a top 10 team, you’d think you’d take a cue from the Bulls 21-13 upset over the Mountaineers and be ready for Saturday. But it looked like no one was paying attention.

Urban Meyer’s best Mike Shanahan impression went awry. Meyer called a timeout just before the ball was snapped in the hopes of shaking Auburn freshman kicker Wes Bynum. Bynum made the attempt to no avail. He’d have to repeat the feat for the Tigers to pull the upset over the Gators.

Well, Bynum kicked the 43-yard again and Auburn ran off the field of “The Swamp” with a 20-127 win over Florida.

Meyer should be chastised for the “against the spirit of the rule” timeout call, but he and his QB, Tim Tebow, are national favorites, so they will more than likely escape the harsh words they deserve. Tebow was downright average for most of the night and Meyer found out that his team’s defense can be had.

Oh well, the Gators, their average quarterback, and their sheisty head coach can gain a measure of revenge for this loss by defeating LSU next week in Baton Rouge.

Gilbert Arenas, Mark Ecko and Barry’s #756 Ball

A Short Note:

Gilbert Arenas has offered to buy Barry Bonds’ #756 from Mark Ecko for $800k because he’s pissed that Ecko would represent Bonds’ achievement in the manner he did. Arenas had this to say:

“I don’t think he should mess up history like that,” Arenas said Friday.

“It’s history. It’s still history. I mean, the guy’s a man before he’s some big slugger,” he added. “I mean, how you just going to take what this man’s done for his career and … say, ‘Hey, you were accused of this. You allegedly did this. I want to take this away from you.’? I mean, what if we took away your Ecko company? I mean, why graffiti the ball?”

Food for Thought to Prep You for Your NCAA Football Saturday

Ohhhh yeah. There’s nothing like starting a Friday off with a bang. This was going to be the first topic of yet another “Spotes Notes” segment, but hey, change does occur….

Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy called the following statements reported in a New York Times article blatantly racist:

“If you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid who happens to play a sport, that’s fine. But they give it to a functional illiterate who can’t read a cereal box, and then make him spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That’s not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school.”

The statement was made by William C. Dowling, a tenured English professor at Rutgers. Dowling has written a book memoir of the decade-long campaign against high-stakes athletics at Rutgers, “Confessions of a Spoilsport,” (Penn State University Press) chronicling his fight against Rutgers University’s entry into high stakes athletics:

Across the Vick Divide: The Chasm Is Larger Than Ever

Well, I was right about ESPN’s town hall meeting, “Across the Vick Divide.” Yesterday, or more accurately, this morning, I wrote the following:

The guests will provide a gawking television audience with overblown depictions of Vick in a sure attempt to reduce him to a “thing” lower on the evolutionary tree than any Simian primate. Their praise of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will be fawning – the new “bwana” keeps the animals with veldt origins separate from civilized onlookers. The panel will depict all black people who cried out for temperance rather than an automatic judgment of Vick’s guilt before the facts of the investigation were known as a monolithic voice of unthinking emotional reactionaries in the tried-and-true tradition of loaded racist verbiage. There will be side discussions about various athletes who defended Vick and, in their rabies-laden eyes, downplayed dog fighting; side discussions about athletes – black athletes – in general and dog fighting. Perhaps the panelists will try to make a “cultural connection” to the rural South, black people, and dog fighting.

John Goodwin, “featured guest audience member” provided us with the, Vick as lower than animal because of his treatment of dogs, theme. Neal Boortz was relatively non-descript and actually acted as panel all-around bland guy. Boortz was so purposefully vanilla that he must have had “tone it down” written in the palm of his hand; or perhaps his role was pre-determined. Roger Goodell was praised because Vick committed a “federal offense,” was the mantra repeated by Chuck Smith, former Atlanta Falcons player and CNN, NFL analyst. Terrence Moore took care of the “unthinking emotional responses” portion of the vilification process. The athletes who defended Vick were met with the charge of being uninformed by Smith. Selena Roberts took care of both the, why is dog fighting connected to athletes and the connection to the rural South.

Michael Vick Town Hall Meeting: Only in ESPNland

Only in ESPNland can Neil Boortz, Terrence Moore, Selena Roberts, and a jock, Terrence Mathis, be gathered and touted as an authoritative panel for a “town hall” meeting in Atlanta where the main topic is Michael Vick.

Boortz is a pro-Iraq War, pro-Patriot Act zealot. Moore is a black sports journalist who writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His, straight off the plantation house negro, anti-black people rants in the form of AJC commentaries and ESPN television appearances relative to the Vick case are the stuff of legend. Terrence Mathis? Ummm, sure, whatever. And Selena Roberts of the New York Times has contributed exactly how many important pieces about Michael Vick and the investigation into Vick’s participation into dog fighting? Well, she wrote a 917-word commentary about pit bulls, dog fighting, and athletes. Let me clarify that. She wrote about black athletes with a nod to Jay-Z.

NFL Week 3 Report: and DeAngelo Hall News

You know you’ve played quarterback in the NFL a long time old when kids who grew up emulating you have gone through the necessary maturing process to become starters in the league.

With that said, which young quarterbacks look like just like Brett Favre? Hmmmm, let’s see, Tony Romo and Jay Cutler. After watching Romo and Cutler slither away, shrug off, and complete passes while in the grasp of lineman with Favre-like ease, I completely believe that the M-I-S-S-I-S-S… QB was their hero. The way they throw passes across their bodies with an ease and with accuracy that escapes most NFL QBs, it is apparent that each spent an inordinate amount of time as boys and barely teens flicking the ball around the yard from every position imaginable.

Spotes Notes, 9.21.07: A Jena 6 Response to “Big Greezy”; AK-47 to Russia Without Love?; NFL Destroys “Videogate” Evidence; Darko Goes Crazy

In response to Mr. Chitlins: on the Jena 6

Here’s a comment I posted in the KC Star comment section to Mr, Chitlins, Jason Whitlock:

Big Greezy-

You’re a liar, as usual Mr. Chitlins…. this was found over at the Yahoo news section (but I guess they’re liars, too)….

McNabb and More: There’s Something Happening Here

Something deep is happening.

Through the HBO Real Sports, James Brown interview with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and all the thoughts on my previous McNabb commentary from The Starting Five readers, I find myself grappling with something I can’t quite touch. I feel it, I feel it deeply, but I can’t seem to get my head around it.

I know that is not what a sports writer-columnist is supposed to say when approaching subject matter. I also know that truth trumps rules and everything else in this life. Even that is a strange statement to make as I approach this part deux of the topic of McNabb.

See, Donovan McNabb has been a good teammate, a good endorser, a good role model for younger people, and arguably the best quarterback who is black to ever play the game. And yet here we are, having watched this man play football at the highest level in both the collegiate and professional ranks and we are seeing him in a new light. For the first time in his career, Donovan McNabb is at a professional crossroads.

No Love Here for McNabb’s Complaints

While everybody else is drinking the new batch of O.J. or trying to squeeze in the back of a “Crown Vick,” or checkin’ a chick and her Beli, I mean Belly, I’m going to take a right turn into some other territory. It’s something that’s been on my mind for awhile and has been the topic of some conversations since the beginning of this season.

So, here we go.

Black quarterbacks don’t get the same treatment as white QBs do. What! Oh my goodness it can’t be true! Quarterbacks with darker skin get sort-leashed, while white QBs can get passed around like an after-show, after-party groupie and no one cares?!

The blasphemy! The horror! Once again we’ve been bamboozled, hoodwinked, had the wool pulled over our eyes! Damn….

TSF Interview: Rob Parker

Interview: Mizzo, DWil; Words: DWil

It is said that there are more quality sports journalists now than at any other time in the U.S. This could not be farther from the truth. Sports writers today advance their personal “brand” by accessing the various mediums available to them: television, newspapers, Internet, magazines, and radio. To the public, a constant barrage of face time and bylines provides a writer with impression of perceived importance. Yet, for the vast majority of sports journalists, a glut of appearances across various public platforms does not equal quality in writing or a deep understanding of sports.

In this atmosphere of “more equal better,” Rob Parker is an anomaly. Sure Parker takes advantage of the various mediums available to him. However, what differentiates Parker from those who are, in the field of sports writing, commonly called, “taking head hacks” Parker fills every second of journalist air time conveying in-depth information, professionalism, and unflinching truth to readers of and those who listen to his words.