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One of our loyal readers chided me for putting NASCAR on the contempt list yesterday, and he suggested that the cheating scandals was merely a throwback to the sport’s colorful roots.  And he has a valid point.  NASCAR’s drama, some of which can be theatrical in nature (like the girly fights that often break out between drivers after contentious races), does keep the sport interesting, and it is fair to remember that it was at one time the playground of moonshine runners and other good ol’ boy outlaw-types.  To that end, I salute NASCAR’s flavor, and I offer up this piece, a remembrance of the throwdown between Cale Yarborough (who always enjoyed real fights) and the Allison brothers near the conclusion of the 1979 Daytona 500.However, NASCAR still gets to keep their spot on the contempt list.  Allowing owner/driver Michael Waltrip to race tomorrow after someone on his crew used an illegal substance in the fuel system of his #55 Toyota is a serious error, one that seems to run counter to the sport’s history.  This column from David Newton shows that many NASCAR veterans, including Richard Petty, find it unlikely that anything was done to Waltrip’s car without his knowledge.  Even former DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finds it hard to believe that anyone on Waltrip’s crew acted without his knowledge.  This piece tells that it has always been taboo to mess around with the engine, the fuel, or the tires of a stock car…and seems to suggest that NASCAR should have given Waltrip a long vacation. 

It’s Friday, so it must be time for us to identify some of the most contemptible individuals and sagas of the week…

5.  Gonzaga forward Josh Heytvelt…The 6-11 sophomore was booked around midnight last Friday for possessing marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.  He was joined by freshman Theo Davis, who is redshirting this season.  Part of the reason Heytvelt makes the cut is for shrooming like it was the ’60’s, but mostly he’s here for letting his teammates down.  With the Zags already suffering through a bubblicious season, his indefinite suspension robs his team of its second-leading scorer and puts their NCAA bid in further jeopardy.  There’s nothing quite like public embarrassment and potentially throwing away your basketball career.  Let’s hope those were some good drugs.

4.  Nancy Pelosi…Just because I feel like it.  I caught some of the Speaker’s comments the other day, and here’s what I heard: “Bark, Bark, Bark, Bark, Bark.”  And something about listening to the American people.  Here’s a tip, Nancy…you’ll have to shut up long enough to hear the American people…

3.  NASCAR…What the hell is going on at Daytona?  Apparently so much cheating is going on at the 500 that Bud Selig thought they were hosting spring training.  You want to give Mike Helton and company credit for actively policing their sport, but I have to ask, why just throw out crew chiefs?  What does it take to get a driver dismissed.  I realize that crew chiefs are integral to the success of a race team, but kicking crew chiefs out and taking away points does not ensure that a team that has attempted to circumvent the rules won’t win the race.  I’m not a big NASCAR fan; frankly, I’m nothing more than a casual follower of the sport.  But it would appear to me that NASCAR needs to set more concrete and uniform penalties for those that flaunt the rules, and secondly, they need to consider kicking entire race teams out of events if they want to send a serious and consistent message.  I can’t imagine anyone associated with the sport can be happy with the publicity coming out of the Great American Race this week…

2.  Gene Wojciechowski…The ESPN.com writer was kind enough to divide the world into gay advocates, gay bashers, and the enlightened few.  His column had some merit, but his simplistic view of the issue makes anybody who has a problem with homosexuality a villain or an ignorant fool.  And I have a problem with that.  Which I will explain as we discuss the gentlemen at number one…

1.  John Amaechi and Tim Hardaway…Just seems fitting that the homosexual and the homophobe get to occupy this spot together.  If there’s one thing Wojciechowski had right in his column, it’s that nobody should much care about this issue.  But the media does…Wojo does…or the columns and the coverage wouldn’t be spilling out all over the place.  People care.  They do.  How do we know?  We know because Tim Hardaway got asked the question.  How would you deal with a gay teammate?  He did not volunteer his views.  Asked, answered. Were Hardaway’s comments foolhardy, given the public environment they were made in?  Pretty much, yes.  But ignorant or not, Tim Hardaway is entitled to not like gay people.  He is entitled to not approve of homosexuality.  You wish he hadn’t gone as far as hate…and we’re pretty sure he really wishes he hadn’t gone as far as hate…but better to be honest than to lie like so many other public figures have when asked about Amaechi’s coming out.

We are all uncomfortable with things we don’t understand and that we see to be different.  Such was the case with racial tensions that dominated this country for years.  I would be willing to guess that the majority of heterosexual individuals, especially in areas where open homosexuality isn’t prevalent, are still quite uncomfortable with homosexuality.  And there are a great many people who have legitimately held religious beliefs that find homosexuality to be both wrong and offensive.

Amaechi offended me, not with his sexuality, but with his general intolerance of anybody who didn’t understand his orientation.  If you read his book excerpt on ESPN.com, you will find that Amaechi goes out of his way to rip Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan.  Amaechi has an axe to grind with Sloan because he didn’t like being screamed at, and he tries to paint Sloan as an angry homophobe who had him banished from the Jazz because he was gay.  Amaechi doens’t provide any hard evidence that was the case (just comments from ‘unnamed’ Jazz employees).  But it’s clear that he has a real problem with Sloan.  Well…Jerry Sloan has yelled at lots of players, and I don’t imagine their sexuality had anything to do with the yelling.  Gay or straight, you fail to do things Jerry’s way, then you are going to get your ass chewed (hmm…there’s a joke there, isn’t there?)  Amaechi has spent a lot of time, both in this excerpt and in his recent interviews making it clear that he is smarter than the rest of us, and a better human being to boot.  He might be.  But it’s not because he’s gay.  But if he’s truly so enlightened, then maybe he could have been understanding of Jerry Sloan, of the time and the place that Sloan comes from.  Understanding is a two-way street, and Amaechi doesn’t get a pass just because he likes dudes.

We are, it seems, now living in the days of the oppressed majority.  I believe that every person should be allowed to live their life any way that they choose, so long as they don’t infringe upon that same right for everyone else.  So whatever John Amaechi wants to do is fine with me.  But I’m not going to sit around and act enlightened and endorse his lifestyle when it isn’t something I really understand.  And I won’t criticize Tim Hardaway for anything he thinks on the matter, either…except for the fact that he pushed this thing through at least two or three more news cycles.

And cheer up Timmy…you may not be welcome at the All-Star festivities, but you’ll always have a home in Moscow, where officials recently banned a gay rights parade…

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen!!!  You too, can be a Division I head coach.  No prior experience required.  Matter of fact, you don’t even have to be a basketball coach.  As long as you have ever watched a game on television, played a game in your driveway, or read a preseason basketball publication, you can be a head coach.  It is truly simple.  You can be a broker, a banker, a candlestick maker.  You could be in sales, you could be a homemaker.  You could be an accountant, a carpenter, or a chef.  You could even be a columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader.  Because if you think you know basketball, the Kentucky Wildcats need you…

Take John Clay for example.  Mr. Clay is a veteran columnist for the aforementioned Herald-Leader, and he has already boiled the ‘Cats troubles down to one simple thing.  Recruiting!  Eureka!  Mr. Clay has used his many years as an experienced observer and figured this one very important thing out:  Kentucky needs better players.  It is a discovery so breathtaking that Einstein himself might sit up in his grave to applaud.

In case Tubby Smith doesn’t read your paper…and really, who reads their toilet paper these days…we’ll let him in on the secret that he needs to do a better job recruiting.  He’s probably not aware of the shortcomings of his basketball team, and frankly, it may be entirely possible that he has gone the entire span of his 27-year coaching career and never noticed how important recruiting is.  It is also entirely possible that neither he nor any member of his coaching staff has noticed the shortcomings of the program the last two years.  So isn’t it their good fortune that the Herald-Leader keeps a writer of such astounding journalistic ability free to provide his basketball expertise to the University of Kentucky program…

Because I’m sure that was Mr. Clay’s intent.  I’m sure that he never intended to criticize the manner in which Tubby Smith does his job, and surely it couldn’t have been his intent to stir up the restless natives of Big Blue Nation.  Journalists, after all, are completely unbiased and they would never stoop to dip a toe into the dangerous water of partisan opinion.  Would they?

Clay is merely working front and center as the Herald-Leader’s hatchet man.  He is a columnist, you see, and they dare to encourage partisan opinions all the time.  The Herald-Leader wants to sell papers, and given the recent struggles of the Big Blue, they know that eviscerating Tubby Smith will sell lots of papers.  Readers, you see, want to read what they want to read.  They don’t want to be subjected to ideas that run counter to their own.  That’s why liberals read papers with a liberal slant and conservatives read papers that lean to the right.  And angry and dissatisfied Kentucky fans don’t want to read a column defending Tubby Smith…which is why they will hate this one.  They want Tubby Smith on the spit and roasting over a fire.  John Clay will be happy to bring the matches…

Here’s the facts folks…This year’s edition of the Kentucky Wildcats, is not, based on results, appreciably better than last year’s edition of the Kentucky Wildcats.  And nobody was satisfied with the 22-13 mark achieved a year ago.  Losing double-figure games and struggling in the SEC is not the sort of thing that any Kentucky fan is accustomed to.  That is perfectly fine, and perfectly understandable.  But let’s take a closer look at Tubby Smith’s work…you might be surprised to see what you find.

In his first eight years on the job in Lexington, Tubby Smith delivered seven SEC titles (outright and shared combined).  Beginning in ’02-’03 (when the ‘Cats went a perfect 16-0 in league play), Smith embarked on a three-year stretch where UK went 43-5 in conference play, including a 14-2 mark just two seasons ago.  All of a sudden, because of a couple of tough years (and this one isn’t even over yet), we are supposed to believe that the wheels have come off the wagon?   Tubby Smith isn’t a different coach than the one who won a national championship in 1998, and he isn’t a different coach from the guy that went undefeated in the SEC four years ago on the way to a 32-4 mark.  And yes, Mr. Clay, the players are different…but let’s take a look at that.

The leading scorers on the ’98 team were Jeff Sheppard, Scott Padgett, Nazr Mohammed, Wayne Turner, and Allen Edwards (and yes, I know they were Pitino guys).  Not one of those players was a sure-fire blue chipper.  Sheppard and Turner were close, with Turner’s schoolboy career probably making him the most highly-rated prospect, but there were questions about Padgett, Mohammed, and Edwards having the ability to play at the SEC level.  The combination of Pitino and Smith molded that bunch into the core of a national championship team.  But that title wasn’t won on the recruiting trail.

The key personnel on the ’02-’03 team featured Keith Bogans, Gerald Fitch, Marquis Estill, Erik Daniels, and a fellow by the name of Chuck Hayes.  Other than the highly-recruited Bogans (and he was deemed a bust for most of his career), Cliff Hawkins and freshman Kelenna Azubuike were probably the most highly-touted bodies on the roster.  Smith took pieces of varying (but not stunning) talent and put together a team that achieved something (the perfect SEC campaign) that was in its own way more improbable than a national championship.

You could make the case that the personnel on each of the last two Wildcat teams (and certainly this year’s) are more talented than either of those teams.  Every Wildcat fan was excited by the recruiting class that featured Ramel Bradley, Joe Crawford, Randolph Morris, and Rajon Rondo, but is has not, as of yet, panned out.  Could it?  Maybe.  And maybe not.  Rondo is already gone.  Morris likely will be (again) this summer.  The class of 2004 may never get any other grade than incomplete.  But anybody who wants to look back now and say, “Well, Chris Lofton and Corey Brewer turned out to be stars and our guys stink” are probably the same people that celebrated the ’04 class when it came in.  It’s pure hindsight.  It is backseat coaching.  And John Clay knows it.

To digress from Clay a bit, but stay on the topic of recruiting, let’s consider North Carolina’s Roy Williams for a moment.  Williams has always had tremendous success recruiting, but never more than he has experienced since his return to Chapel Hill.  Kentucky fans know all to well how successful he has been, often seeing top recruits put UK on their short list only to eventually choose UNC.  That is, of course, exactly what happened with freshman standout Brendan Wright, already a key contributor for the Tar Heels and a piece the Wildcats would have dearly added to their frontcourt.
Part of the reason Williams is believed to recruit so well is the fact that he plays a liberating and entertaining style on offense, seemingly the polar opposite to Kentucky’s seemingly deliberate and sometimes sleep-inducing offense.  Now Williams is a fantastic coach, without question.  And his teams are always a great deal of fun to watch.  But take note of these things.  One, Williams was still a helluva coach when he was at Kansas.  But he NEVER won a championship there.   He did a lot of crying at a lot of press conferences, but for all of his recruiting acumen and his beautiful style of play, no titles for Roy at KU.  Two, when he finally climbed the mountain at UNC, he did so with Matt Doherty’s players.  Not his own.  Three, Williams followed that success up with a second-round exit at the hands of George Mason, and four, while I am sure his phenomenal recruiting efforts will pay off in the near future, his kids have yet to figure out how to beat Virginia Polytechnic.

See, it’s easy to find fault with a coach.  Even one as great as Roy Williams.  I could tell you about how it took Dean Smith two decades to track down a championship, or about how if administrators had listened to overzealous and impatient boosters that neither Smith nor Mike Krzyzewski would have been around long enough to build the fabulous legacies they have at their respective schools.  I could (and actually I did, right here) tell you how the legendary Adolph Rupp had seasons of 16-9, 15-10, and 13-13 (including 8-10 in the SEC).  I wonder if John Clay would have had the stones to write funny lines about ten-loss Adolph…

Are there problems with the men’s basketball team at the University of Kentucky?  Yes.  Absolutely.  Are things up to par, per the expectations of the University of Kentucky?  No.  But most importantly, things aren’t up to par per the expectations of Tubby Smith.  Tubby Smith is a tremendous basketball coach, just as good as Roy Williams or anybody else you care to name in the country.  He knows how to build a program and he knows how to maintain a program.  I believe he knows how to raise a program to greater heights.  And he doesn’t need every broker, banker, and bourbon maker in the state of Kentucky telling him how to do his job…even if you mean well.

The great thing about Kentucky fans is that they love their basketball team almost more than anything.  The awful thing about Kentucky fans is that they love their basketball team almost more than anything.  The passion is a wonderful, albeit dangerous, double-edged sword.  The great thing about basketball is everybody feels like they know something about it.  That’s how we come up with so many armchair coaches and athletic directors out there.  Funny thing is, sports are almost the only topic out there that we treat like that.  You don’t see a lot of message boards out there dedicated to breaking down neurosurgery or nuclear physics.  Maybe that’s because nobody has a passion for those unique specialties, or maybe it’s because there are no columnists out there making it seem like those areas are child’s play.  If you are looking for somebody to thank for giving you the impression that anyone can run a major Division I basketball program, be sure to send a note to John Clay.

I don’t know much, but I do know this: A great basketball man by the name of C.M. Newton once believed that Tubby Smith was the right man to lead the Kentucky basketball program.  I believe that few people have ever had a more vested interest or a better understanding of what Kentucky basketball is all about than C.M. Newton.  So I’ll just close with this…if Tubby Smith was good enough for C.M. Newton, he’s good enough for me.  I hope he’s good enough for Mitch Barnhart (and Mitch, you should listen since I gave you such good advice on Rich Brooks).  I couldn’t care less if he’s good enough for John Clay.

And one last thing to chew on…if Kentucky gets a new basketball coach, how long will it be before we have this discussion about him?  Ten minutes…or five?
     

When we (and by we, I mean human beings) read or hear something and we are already predisposed to a particular belief, then we read or hear material about that subject with bias.  We often like to think that isn’t the case, but it’s a fact.  No matter what Billy Packer says on a CBS broadcast, all I ever hear is, “I’m a horse’s ass who loves the ACC and hates Kentucky.”  It has been that way for years, and I suppose it is always that way.  Every time I read Pat Forde, I still have to fight the urge to disagree with everything he writes.  But I’m getting better.  Sometimes Pat is on the money, whether I like it or not.

Our built-in bias must be fought when trying to comprehend the information in front of us, because when we give in to our bias we are bound to learn nothing, and in fact, we are quite capable of making the words on the page say something quite different from what they actually do.  My recent column in support (sort of) of Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith is a perfect example.  Say a group of people read the column, and their reaction is something like, “This is bullshit.  Tubby sucks.  Here are the guys who should replace him.”  Well…where exactly does that come from?  When you read the column, you will (correctly) get the impression that I believe Tubby should remain the coach at UK.  But it is not an apologist’s defense of Coach Smith, because it in no way blindly defends him or ignores the current shortcomings in his program.  I even acknowledge that others could probably do better.  What the column is actually about, however, is that the expectations of the Kentucky basketball program are based on myth and perception, rather than on facts and reality.  Is Kentucky one of college basketball’s storied programs?  Yes it is.  Has it always been a dominant program where championships came easily and often.  No, it hasn’t.  It was difficult for Rupp, it was difficult for Hall, it was really difficult for Sutton, and it was even tough for the great Pitino…for all of his brilliance he only won one title.

I don’t mind that people don’t agree with my take on the situation.  It is perfectly natural for Kentucky fans to want the very best, and the last two seasons in Lexington have been particularly trying.  But I would ask two things of my readers…one, be smart enough to know what you just read.  And if you aren’t, read it again.  The column on Smith wasn’t about Smith; it was about the history of Kentucky basketball and the different climates it has competed in during the history of the NCAA tournament.  It might have proved helpful to those armchair athletic directors and coaches who THINK they know what they are talking about, but in reality they haven’t a clue.  Number two…raise your hand, UK fans, if you thought Tubby Smith could coach when he won the national title.  Could he coach in ‘02-’03 when the ‘Cats went undefeated in SEC play and finished 32-4?  Or two years ago when the ‘Cats went 14-2 in league play and were minutes from a Final Four trip?  Seven times in his first eight years the man led the Wildcats to at least a share of the SEC regular season title.  From ‘02-’05, Smith led UK to a 43-5 record in SEC play.  After a stumbling start against U of L, Tubby has even bagged three in a row against Team Pitino.

I’ve seen people that want Bill Self as a potential replacement for Tubby.  Self is a fine coach to be sure, but I wonder how Self’s first-round flameouts to Bucknell and Bradley would have played on the Big Blue message boards?  Billy Gillispie is another outstanding choice, one of the hottest coaches in the business right now.  He sort of reminds you of the guy C.M. Newton turned to as a replacement for Rick Pitino: Orlando Smith.  There are countless outstanding coaches around the country; I mentioned West Virginia’s John Beilein the other day.  But the thing is this: None of them have won more than Tubby Smith.  He has won, he can win, and he will win.  And those that would have celebrated the exploits of the Kentucky teams that have had tremendous success under his direction, each of you should be ashamed of reveling in anything that might lead to his dismissal.

Every fan that works for a living might want to ask himself (or herself) this…Am I as proficient at my job as Tubby Smith is at his?  And if I’m not…why do I still have a job?

I should have known better than to kick dirt on Rick Pitino’s Bruno Maglis yesterday…On the verge of consecutive trips to the NIT, all Pitino’s Cards did last night was go to Pittsburgh and kick sand in the face of the Big East’s resident bully.  U of L got fine play from oft-injured David Padgett and prodigal freshman Derrick Caracter, as the duo combined to outplay Pitt’s All-America candidate at center, Aaron Gray.  Louisville’s 2-3 zone forced the Panthers into 3-21 shooting from behind the arc and a putrid 35% for the night overall.  The big win on hostile soil almost assures the Cardinals of ten Big East wins and twenty victories overall, tallies that should bring a NCAA tourney bid for Slick Rick and company.

It hit the wires last night that Marty Schottenheimer had finally lost his power struggle with general manager A.J. Smith.  Schottenheimer, with 200 wins in his career, was sent packing after a 14-win season.  He and Smith have barely spoken over the last year, and apparently the losses of coordinators Cam Cameron (new head coach of the Miami Dolphins) and Wade Phillips (new lackey for Jerry Jones in Dallas) upset the delicate balance being struck in San Diego.  This isn’t the first time that a power struggle between a coach and a GM has resulted in one of the parties losing their job, but it might be the most ridiculous.  For all of the criticisms of his postseason record, Schottenheimer is a marvelous coach, and despite the fact that Smith seems to be a petty smartass, he has done a fabulous job of building an outstanding football team.  Theirs may not have been a happy marriage, but results would indicate Smith and Schottenheimer could have continued to be successful together.  I suppose if forced to pick a side, I’d pick Schottenheimer.  Personnel isn’t easy, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than winning 200 football games in the NFL.  And Smith should know that.  He should have dropped his ego and done whatever it took to appease one of the great coaches in the NFL.  Sources close to the situation say not to expect Bill Cowher to get a phone call from the Chargers as he and Schottenheimer are very close friends.  Speaking of Cowher, there are many who have speculated that after a year off, he might get a phone call from the Cleveland Browns if they fire Romeo Crennel after the 2007 season.  But here’s a more interesting scenario…how about if the Browns give Marty a call to return to the city where he had his greatest success???…and where his playoff demons first materialized.  Expect the Chargers to pick up the phone and call Ron Rivera, the Bears defensive coordinator, even though he’s not a 3-4 guy (the Chargers base the last few years).  And if that doesn’t work out…somebody call Don Coryell….

As many of you already know, the Dixie Chicks won five Grammys on Sunday night.  It was a coronation of sorts, as they appear to have been martyred into becoming the latest and greatest protest singers in American history.  They were even introduced at the Grammys by Joan Baez.  And somewhere Jane Fonda wept.

I was reading an AP report today about the still-frayed relationship between the Chicks and country music radio, and based on their comments Sunday night, the Chicks aren’t country anymore anyway.  Good to know.  But I’d just like to thank everybody who boycotted the Dixie Chicks and turned them into national heroes for having an opinion.  Nice job.  Look, did I like hearing that Natalie Maines ripped the President at a London concert?  No, I didn’t.  But she is a country music (no matter what she says) entertainer.  I could give a damn what she thinks about anything.  Nobody else should care either.  But since people cared so much that several yahoos issued death threats and the country music establishment (where the hell is this so-called establishment anyway?  Do they have a clubhouse or something?) cut them off entirely, refusing to play their music and leading boycotts of their concerts, they became oppressed darlings of the left.  And now, with popular opinion in the country swinging heavily to their side, they look like political geniuses and true Americans who stood up for what they believed.  Gakkk.  Give me a break.  Maines mouthed off, they got smacked in the head for it, and they hung around long enough to receive credit they don’t deserve.  This is what happens every single time people put any stock into something a ‘celebrity’ says.

I’ll be honest with you.  I enjoy the Dixie Chicks music.  Always have.  I think they are remarkably talented, and I love their last album, including their in your face ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ that helped them haul in all of the hardware Sunday night.  I could care less that they don’t care for George W. Bush.  They may drive around with Ted Kennedy bumper stickers on their tour bus.  They may revere Hillary Clinton.  They may all have secret crushes on Al Gore.  None of it matters to me.  Just like I wouldn’t care if they loved George W. Bush, went hunting with Dick Cheney, worshipped Rudy Giuliani, and shared diet tips with Mike Huckabee.  They are freakin’ country music entertainers!!!  I don’t turn to Britney Spears for advice on underwear, I don’t seek Paris Hilton for moral fiber, and I don’t look up the Dixie Chicks for political or social direction.  And neither should anybody else.

Finally, two last notes.  One, Huntington High School issued a three-game suspension for OJ Mayo in wake of the RefereeGate saga, forcing me to recognize Huntington principal Greg Webb as an administrator who has forced his star athlete to be accountable for his actions.  I gave Webb and his fellow administrators for doing nothing; now I must acknowledge his action and revoke his contempt status here at The High Court.  You know he will be relieved.  And…I would like to recognize the return of my good friend leftygolfer to The High Court audience.  He just posted a comment on my rant directed at the FedEx Cup a few weeks back, and I believe it is worth a read for everyone.  Good to have you back, lefty…

Kentucky has been knocked off its SEC throne by the Florida Gators, and UK fans aren’t taking it well.  It has upped the vitriol for the many critics of Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, and calls for his dismissal will reach a fever pitch if the ‘Cats don’t find a way to reach the Final Four in 2007.  A large portion of Kentucky fans feel it is their birthright to reach the Final Four, and these fans have allowed themselves to be sucked into a mythology that is well, largely myth.  Yes, UK basketball has been one of the most outstanding programs in NCAA history, but the idea that Kentucky has always won and always occupied the top of the moutain is highly erroneous.  I’ll spend today defending Tubby Smith and pointing out that even the legendary Adolph Rupp had some rough patches in his remarkably successful tenure at Kentucky.  Plus, who can forget the immortal W.H.H. Mustaine (and others), the originator of Kentucky basketball, who went 21-35 from 1903 to 1909.  And Basil Hayden, UK’s first basketball All-American, went a disturbing 3-13 in his only season as head coach.  Basil proved two things…great players don’t always make great coaches, and Kentucky (contrary to popular belief) hasn’t always won.  But they’ve always expected to…maybe that’s why Basil was one and done…

Just a small sampling from the contempt file this week…To be honest, it really slipped my mind to keep up with who should make this week’s list over the past week, so…it’s a thin group today, and most of what we do have is thanks to our loyal reader, Harold ‘Hac’ Huston.

4. Pro Football Hall of Fame voters…This honor comes belatedly to those who select the newest inductees to Canton each year, and Mr. Huston had them on his radar for once again passing over former Washington Redskins standout Art Monk.  Marvin Harrison is held in high esteem these days for his classy demeanor, but long before Syracuse sent Harrison to the NFL, another product of the Orange was cutting a graceful path across the league, on and off the field.  When you think of Monk, think of the anti-T.O., a man of great humility and compassion, a man just as interested in philanthropic work and making his world a better place.  He rarely played in an offense ideal for putting up huge numbers, as Joe Gibbs’ versatile attacks often favored either the run or multiple-receiver sets, but Monk still managed to haul in 940 passes in a 16-year career.  There will be critics who take issue with the inclusion of Michael Irvin into the Hall before Monk, and I certainly understand their frustration, but I would remind them of this…Irvin was the better player.  It is true that Monk had nearly 200 (190 to be exact) more receptions than Irvin, but he compiled them in 65 more games.  Monk’s candidacy may be hurt by the fact that he had a pedestrian 13.5 yards per catch average over the course of his career, and the fact that he only had 68 touchdown catches (Irvin, by contrast, averaged 15.9 yards per catch and had 65 touchdowns in those 65 fewer games).  But this isn’t about whether or not Irvin deserves to be in…he does (his shitty character notwithstanding).  It is about the fact that one of the outstanding men ever to wear an NFL uniform DOES deserve to be enshrined in Canton.  Art Monk was a three-time Super Bowl champ, an outstanding receiver, and he remains an outstanding example as a human being.  So let’s correct your error next year voters…or you’re back on the list…

3.  The Chicago Bulls…This one also comes from Mr. Huston, who pointed out that the Bulls fined rookie forward Tyrus Thomas $10,000 dollars for saying he was attending the All-Star Game Slam Dunk contest just for the money.  The truth hurts, eh Tyrus?  Especially in the wallet.  I guess we understand why John Paxson and the organization had to slap Thomas hand…the NBA would frown on us getting the idea they do anything for the money.  Say…where’s that All-Star Game being played this year?  Oh yeah.  Vegas.  And it isn’t like the whole point of the All-Star weekend is to make money or anything…right?  We wish you luck Tyrus.  Win the big check.  If you can keep from opening your mouth before the contest gets here, you just might come out ahead…

2.  The Boston Celtics…It’s a good thing Red Auerbach passed before he had to see it.  A sixteen-game losing skid, the longest in franchise history, is still rolling along.  Paul Pierce, the only thing resembling an NBA player on the Celtics roster, has been in the hospital, and while out of the lineup Pierce may have won himself the MVP award.  The Celts are a dismal 2-22 without their star, a number that points out his value in a way that words never could.  Danny Ainge has saddled his organization with a bunch of young talents, all of whom, sadly, would be better off if they were on college campuses across the nation.  Because that’s exactly where Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Rajon Rondo, and Sebastian Telfair could be.  Instead, their busy getting their brains beat out as their fans sit and pray that they keep losing and can somehow win the lottery and a chance at Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.  What in the name of Bob Cousy is going on?  Celtic Pride indeed…

1.  The Chief Justice, The High Court of Sports…I promised yesterday it would be me for my poor handling of the OJ Mayo case, and here I am.  For those of you who missed it, scroll down to the post below as I revist the Mayo saga with a little more information and a little different perspective.  The fact of the matter is, I deserve the #1 spot for a variety of reasons, not least of which is an overall poor performance.  Truth is, I often find mysef struggling to find consistent inspiration in the world of sports on a daily basis, and I am increasingly discouraged by an audience that has dwindled to a few loyal souls (and I do appreciate all four of you a great deal).  So today The Chief gets top billing as the most contemptible figure of the week, and he promises to raise the level of his work in the future.

As always, I encourage audience participation, both with your commentary and with more suggestions for this week’s or future weeks’ contempt lists.  And finally, for a very good (and lengthy) read about a very successful small-town girls’ basketball program, be sure to read this article by ESPN.com’s Wright Thompson.

When the contempt list comes out on Friday, I’ll probably have to give myself the top spot.  I was lazy last week reporting and opining on the OJ Mayo Referee-Gate situation.  I allowed my research to end with AP wire reports, instead of doing due diligence in digging in to what really happened in Charleston, West Virginia on January 26.  This video, taken at the game, seems to raise questions about whether or not Mayo really ‘pushed’ referee Mike Lazo.  It is difficult to tell from the angle of the video I watched, but it seems unlikely that Mayo was guilty of any sort of malicious contact against the referee, and it has raised strong doubt as to the veracity of Lazo’s account of the events.

If you read the post from last week (Hold the Mayo), you know that I spent most of my time criticizing the adults involved in allowing Mayo to avoid immediate suspension.  And it would seem that some of that criticism was misplaced, at least in this particular circumstance.  It is difficult for me to maintain that anyone involved in the case, from the head coach to the judge whose injunction allowed Mayo to play in Huntington’s next two contests was wrong.  Perhaps Mayo should have been disciplined for taunting and making incidental contact with the official, but there is enough evidence from that fateful night to suggest that the referee was just as culpable in the incident as Mayo.

On a local level, I have always believed that there is a lack of accountability for high school officials, and this saga may shed a more intense light on that fact.  The job of a high school official is one that few people want, and with very good reason.  But they are paid for their work (unappreciated as they may be), and they should be held accountable for egregious errors.  Most high school officials are fair men and women working with the best interests of all the kids involved; as such, they should be applauded for their efforts, and their efforts should not be tarnished by officials who have malicious agendas.  If it is true, as some suggested, that Lazo had it ‘in’ for Mayo throughout that night, then it is Lazo, and not Mayo (who may be looking at as much as a four-game suspension in the aftermath) who deserves a lengthy suspension.

As a guy who was always thirty seconds from an ejection, I should have known better to sit in judgment on the case without having all the facts.  Getting it right, or at least providing a different perspective, has always been the mission here, and I simply dropped the ball on this one.  It doesn’t make OJ Mayo a saint, but I knew better than to make him the devil without a closer examination of what really happened.  OJ, you have my apologies.

For more on the Mayo saga, you can read Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski and our buddy Pat Forde…and a special thanks to my old buddy, The Powdered Wig, for sending me on a deeper fact-finding mission.

It seems as though Wade Phillips (son of my all-time favorite NFL coach, Bum) will be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.  Reports suggest that Phillips may have gained the nod over Chicago defensive coordinator Ron Rivera because of Phillips’ comfort level with the 3-4, the scheme the Cowboy defense transitioned to under Bill Parcells.  Phillips had most recently served as the Chargers defensive coordinator, helping the Bolts to a league-best 14-2 record.  The Chargers one-and-out in the playoffs had to feel familiar to Phillips, who sports an O-3 career playoff mark.  The most notable of those losses?  Phillips had the misfortune of being on the wrong end of the Music City Miracle against the Titans in January of 2000.  With Phillips on the verge of taking over in Big D, the next big question in Dallas is whether or not Jerry Jones provides Phillips with a sizeable headache named Terrell Owens.  Stay tuned…

Former NBA player (and former Penn State star) John Amaechi has revealed that he’s gay…and I am completely shocked.  Not.  Amaechi, whose well-traveled career included a stop in Orlando (where I believe he was Darth Reagan’s favorite player), was always known as a very cultured (he was born in America but raised in England) and intelligent fellow…but that isn’t why I wasn’t shocked to hear he was gay.  The reason I wasn’t shocked was because there are several hundred players in the league at a time…based on what we know about society today, some of them are bound to be gay.  And who cares?

There is always going to be some outcry over whether or not there are gays in the shower, and there’s always going to be column space given to analyzing the issue (and that’s analyzing boys…not ANAL-yzing).  ESPN.com’s resident homosexual, LZ Granderson, decried the fact that Amaechi waited until after he was retired to come out, pleading for some young star to be upfront about his sexuality while he was actually still playing.  I’ve dealt with LZ’s gung-ho gay writing before, but this time I’ll give him a pass.  He has an agenda, and he’s entitled to his opinion…and here’s mine…

While I don’t agree with that particular lifestyle choice, if a player is gay, let them be gay.  But let’s quickly get to a place where they can keep their sexuality where I keep mine…behind closed doors.  Because that’s what this is.  It’s about sexuality.  If a power forward wants to have a boyfriend, that’s up to him.  But I don’t want details.  I said this the first time I dealt with a Granderson column.  I don’t want to know if your sexual turn-on’s include girls, guys, farm animals, flashlights, or hot wax.  I don’t want to know.  Ever.  Gay, straight, bisexual, camel-sexual…whatever…keep it to yourself.  I can at least guess at the pressures a closeted athlete lives with, and I would feel sorry for any of them.  But how they choose to proceed is up to each of them.  I just hope that we reach a point and time where the only thing we worry about a player sticking is a fifteen-footer….

I received this article in a link from one of our loyal readers over the weekend.  I know that several of my friends and former teammates in the coaching fraternity will enjoy it, but I also know they will be incredibly disappointed that political correctness continues to rob this country of fabulous motivational material.  My greatest disappointment after reading the article was the fact that the coach, Mike Remillard, apologized.

Long story short if you didn’t read the article, Remillard challenged his players at Leavitt Area High School (Maine) to reach into their shorts and check their manhood at halftime of a game on January 23, telling them that the contest that evening was about who had the biggest balls (or was it dicks?) in town.  He was, predictably, removed from his coaching position.  But at least his efforts weren’t in vain; his club rallied to win that fateful night.

This should have been held for the contempt file on Friday, but I was oh-for-the week so far and I needed the material.  So here’s the guilty parties here…and none of them are the coach…

The knee-jerk administrators who…ironically…lack the balls (or any other parts of the package) to stand behind a coach.  The inmates run the asylum around schools these days, and that is primarily because administrators lack the toughness to put power where power belongs.

The legal system…Ours is an increasingly litigious society, and we have become a group of whiners (perhaps this would be a good place for the use of some female genitalia slang?) who go running to court to solve our problems.  And guess who is setting on the bench…a bunch of judges with nothing swinging beneath the robe.  Justice is blind…and maybe she wasn’t always a lady.  Maybe she’s just been neutered.

And finally…the little bastard or bastards that went running home and told their parents what the coach did.  The report said one player refused to check his manhood (hey, I remember THAT guy in the locker room)…maybe he was the snitch, and maybe he had lots of company.  Either way, if any of those kids had any manhood at all, they should know that the locker room is just like Vegas.  What happens there, stays there.  I’d love to tell you what happened in some of the locker rooms I was in…but I can’t.  It’s just part of the code.  I can tell you that I had multiple coaches challenge my manhood and I can also tell you that I enjoyed playing more for those coaches than the ones who spent all their time being “appropriate”. 

Where I come from, “appropriate” was usually code for “chickenshit”.  Sometimes a situation calls for a certain motivational style, and while there ARE lines that shouldn’t be crossed, what Remillard did wasn’t even close to the line.  He was merely looking to light a fire under his ballclub (which he apparently did), and not attempting to embarrass, shame, or degrade anyone.  Coaches shouldn’t be afraid to challenge their players.  They should be able to set high expectations for them, and they should be able to use any means within reason to help them become better players and better people. 

And like it or not, there are times in all walks of life when it’s about who has the biggest balls…

We welcome back the Friday contempt list today, and there were plenty of potential candidates, even after the O.J. Mayo saga earned its very own contempt list yesterday.  For those that are new to The High Court, or if you’ve simply suffered memory loss, the contempt list exists to target those public figures, groups, or organizations that are guilty of actions or words that should, frankly, be punishable by jail time.  As I mentioned yesterday, I am encouraging all of our readers to participate each week.  You can submit your own contempt lists (anywhere from one to ten members on the list…all public figures in any walk of life are eligible) on the comments board, or you can simply choose to comment on our lists.  And we will take nominations throughout the week for The High Court lists.  You can email those nominations to chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com.

In the spirit of the Academy Awards, the envelope please…

5.  Eric Musselman…The first-year head coach of the Sacramento Kings was suspended for two games by the NBA for his DUI arrest in October.  Musselman recently plead no contest to the charges stemming from that arrest, and he was issued his punishment by the NBA.  Musselman took the penalty in stand-up fashion, accepting accountability and responsibility for his mistake.  But it is never a good thing when the head coach of a franchise is arrested for anything, and that arrest, coupled with the fact that Musselman’s Kings are currently last in the Pacific Division has made for a very tough debut year in Sacto.

4.  The Brothers Reid…Andy Reid’s kids make Eric Musselman look like the AllState driver of the year.  With their folks out of town, 21-year old Britt and 23-year old Garret made Mom and Dad very proud by getting in trouble with the law early Tuesday morning just hours apart in separate incidents.  Britt Reid was arrested for allegedly brandishing a gun at another motorist and older brother Garret Reid was arrested after his SUV collided with another vehicle. The elder Reid brother reportedly admitted to using heroin earlier in the day, and law enforcement officials found drug paraphernalia and weapons inside his vehicle.  Not to be outdone, the younger Reid reportedly was found with guns and drugs at the Reid family home when officers came calling with a search warrant.  I don’t know about you, but I’d be willing to guess that whole McNabb/Garcia quarterback controversy might be taking a backseat for a while at Coach Reid’s house…

3.  The good people of Troy, Michigan…Troy is apparently a well-to-do suburb of Detroit, and these fine upscale people don’t want Hooters expanding in their fair city.  The city council has been blocking the liquor license for a new Hooters location in town, so the good folks at Hooters have just started operating two locations, the old and the new, located just two miles apart.  It’s simply wrong, I tell you.  Do these people have something against generously-packed tank tops?  Or orange hot pants?  It boggles the mind, especially given how perfect the fit for the new Hooters seems to be.  The area that this anti-Hooters faction wanted to keep the new restaurant out of is the Big Beaver commercial district.  And I am not even making that up.  People of Troy, Michigan…listen up.  If ever a Hooters was meant to be somewhere…it was meant to be in the Big Beaver. 

2.  The Speech Police…So it seems Joe Biden just isn’t really good at this presidential campaign stuff.  Biden, who famously went down in political flames in pursuing the 1988 Democratic nomination for plagiarizing the stump speeches of other politicians, stepped in it again this week by making Barack Obama out to be the first African-American politician able to speak, read, and bathe.  Seriously…what Biden really meant wasn’t anywhere near that bad, but he got slammed anyway.  He was trying to give Obama a compliment and ended up sounding like an ignorant racist.  I’m no Biden fan, but I have to defend the guy.  We are approaching a critical mass on this whole political correctness thing; there’s a good chance by 2032 politicians won’t even bother to speak at all for fear of getting killed whatever they say.  He chose his words poorly, but so what?  What if he had called Obama a raving baboon’s ass (in fairness, he may have already reserved that for Mrs. Clinton)?  A little sensitivity is a fine thing, but too much sensitivity leads to its own brand of intolerance.  Nick Saban knows how Biden feels (and I can’t believe I’m defending this guy again, either).  Saban recently made what were supposed to be off-the-record comments (and yet he mad them into a working tape recorder…nice…) to a group of reporters (smart move Nicky), telling a salty anecdote about what a Cajun gentleman had said to a LSU trustee who was a friend of Saban’s.  Saban did a couple of things anti-PC…One, he did his best Cajun, which turned out to be offensive (or so we’re told) and two, he threw out a little blue language (including the term ‘coonass’, which is also apparently offensive to Cajuns…at least those that don’t have T-shirts that read, ‘I’m with Coonass’).  Long story short, the Cajun speaking to the trustee had said Saban’s moving to Alabama was like, “the sonofabitch f**king my wife.”  And now Saban’s in trouble for referring to Cajuns as ‘talking funny’ (and I’d guess for that whole Coonass thing) and dropping f-bombs.  But hey, it could be worse.   Because speaking of f**king somebody’s wife…

1.  Meet San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom…Newsom was forced to admit publicly that he had carried on an affair with the wife of his campaign manager (umm…make that FORMER campaign manager) after Alex Tourk confronted him about the relationship.  Strangely enough, the affair appears to have occurred well over a year ago, when Ruby Rippey-Tourk worked for the mayor (or was that UNDER the mayor?…and how about that handle…Ruby Rippey?  Stage name, anyone?).  We have no idea what prompted the affair to come to Tourk’s attention after that length of time, but one applauds his decision to have the mayor stick it, er…shove it…oh never mind.  As for Newsom, we all worry about the character of our politicians, but it would seem sleeping with a valued colleague’s wife would make him a scumbag of the highest order.  But, if you’re looking for a silver lining…it would appear that there are some straight people in San Francisco (Damn…I hear the speech police coming…)…

One of our loyal readers emailed me last night to get my take on the latest development in the always controversial saga of high school hoops phenom O.J. Mayo.  In case you don’t know (or just didn’t care), Mayo was recently ejected from a game between his Huntington (West Virginia) High and Capital High School.  Mayo received two technical fouls to warrant the ejection, then made contact with referee Mike Lazo.  You can get the rest of the details here, but long story short, Huntington had a big game coming up at Cameron Indoor Stadium against nationally-ranked Artesia High (Lakewood, California) and Mayo needed to play…but there was only the one problem: His ejection mandated a two-game suspension (as well as suspensions for five of his teammates who left the bench during the Capital contest).

To his rescue rode Cabell County Circuit Judge Dan O’ Hanlon (Is it an election year, your honor?), who issued an injunction allowing Mayo to play until a February 9 hearing designed to make a decision on the players’ procedural rights to appeal the suspensions.  Well, hooray for the court system.  Mayo played against Artesia, scoring 19 points as Huntington defeated Artesia 73-66.  They say justice is blind; apparently in O’Hanlon’s court it is also stupid.

I applaud the concept of fairness that O’Hanlon used to free Mayo from his suspension (at least in the short term), because I don’t have a problem with there being an appeals process.  Penalties are often arbitrary, and more often than not, they are handed down with little to no consideration for the mitigating cirmcumstances that make each situation unique.  But this is a case where Mayo had clearly crossed a line, and frankly his actions could have resulted in penalties far greater (like a suspension for the remainder of the season) than two games.  By using legalese to get Mayo and his teammates off the hook, Judge O’Hanlon is sending a couple of terrible messages to those young men.  One, if you are talented enough, somebody will always bail you out, and two, a big basketball game is more important than right and wrong.

I don’t blame Mayo or his teammates for wanting to play.  Anybody would.  But I do hold Mayo accountable for his actions, and more importantly, for refusing to take responsibility for his mistakes.  So he made an error in judgment in the heat of battle.  So what?  But recognize that mistake and take your punishment like a man.

But Mayo isn’t the person who should most be ashamed of himself.  There’s a long list of folks at the front of that line, and it is thanks to them that I announce the return of the contempt lists to The High Court of Sports.  This was a long-time staple at the site, something that we used to do every Friday.  I am going to do things a bit differently this time around, though, as I hope to bring my colleagues back into the fray, and as I attempt to encourage more reader participation.  Starting on each Thursday, I’ll be taking nominations for the contempt lists from our readers and staff, and on Friday we will post the lists on the board.  We’ll consider public figures from any walk of life (sports, politics, entertainment, etc.), and the lists may be as few as one or as many as ten.  I also hope that our readers will submit their own lists each Friday, or at least provide commentary on those that make The High Court’s list.  You can post your own list on the comments board, and you can send me nominations for our list at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com.

So without further adieu, here’s a special Thursday contempt list, O.J. Mayo edition.

5.  O.J. Mayo…Mayo’s the kid, so he just merits the five spot.  But in basketball terms, this kid has been a man for some time.  The USC signee has had a checkered and controversial high school career, often acting as a hoops mercenary, moving from one school to another.  His presence at Ashland’s (KY) Rose Hill Christian prompted a firestorm when he first burst on the scene as a middle schooler, and then he took his show to North College Hill near Cincinnati.  And when his friend and teammate (and current Kansas State freshman) Bill Walker was ruled ineligible to play for North College Hill this season, Mayo returned to his hometown of Huntington.  Mayo has been the darling of the AAU summer circuit and shoe company reps for years, and it is fair to guess that he hasn’t been an amateur basketball player since he was twelve years old.  None of us can be shocked that he doesn’t expect to have to pay the consequences for his behavior.  But it might be wise for Mr. Mayo to read up on the cautionary tale of Maurice Clarett, another young phenom who never heard the word no.  He’d also do well to remember that the adults that keep cleaning up for him probably won’t be there if he ever ends up in an orange jumpsuit next to Clarett…

4. Dwaine Barnes…Mayo’s so-called ‘grandfather’ (I have no idea if he really is or not) appears to be the only constant in his life, and Mr. Barnes has an obligation to give Mayo the direction he needs.  Meal ticket or not, Mayo needs to know the difference between right or wrong.  Dwaine Barnes should care more about the kid and less about the player.

3.  Judge Dan O’Hanlon…I’m going to give him a slight benefit of the doubt and assume that he had at least a thin slice of the rule of law on his side when he issued the injunction.  But this was pure idiocy, plain and simple, and any man in the position of circuit court judge should know better than to endorse irresponsble and consequence-less behavior to teenagers.

2.  Huntington High administrators…Nice job blacking the eyes of your own school system.  Mayo shouldn’t have needed any other ruling bodies to sit him down.  That should have been taking care of within his own school building.  Nice job, guys.

1.  Huntington head coach Lloyd McGuffin and assistant coach (and legal eagle) Mike Woelful…I’d like to give the nod to Woelful, who is pulling the nifty double as assistant coach AND Mayo’s attorney.  I would guess we have this guy to thank for the injunction, since I doubt most high school players would have had the legal expertise to bring the issue in front of a judge.  Woelful is really a credit to the bar.  B ut the scumbag attorney has to ride shotgun to the head coach, McGuffin.  It is his program, and no one further down this list should have had to get involved.  It is McGuffin’s place to control and discipline his players, and by failing to do so, he failed himself, his school, and most importantly, all the young men wearing Huntington High uniforms.

Barry Bonds is a San Francisco Giant again, and it will only be a matter of time before Major League Baseball has to have an answer for the following question…Do you celebrate the accomplisment of a suspected cheat?  Amy Nelson weighs the issue, and sheds some light on what some executives around baseball think about the issue.  As for me, I say yes, MLB will celebrate Bonds…and I say that they should.

I’ll be taking a look at the media’s strange fascination with Mark McGwire in the days to come, as well as the fact that Jose Canseco wasn’t the only person to out McGwire as a steroid user.  I’ll examine how an investigation well prior to BALCO handled things much differently, and I’ll also be asking you how you’d feel about sports villains if they were somebody you knew.

And on one other note…I’m always on the lookout for more subjects for The Chief Justice’s open email series.  If any of you run across columnists or other media personalities that need to be engaged in debate, feel free to pass them along on the comments board or by emailing me at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com.

Tiger Woods and Roger Federer were back working their usual magic over the weeked, with Federer notching his tenth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and Woods running down the field at Torrey Pines for his seventh consecutive PGA Tour win.  It has sparked several ‘who is better?’ debates in the media, including this one from ESPN.com.  It says here, though, that there is no debate.  Roger Federer is an amazing talent, perhaps the finest tennis player in history.  But as Jason Sobel noted in his argument in the linked ESPN piece above, Woods doesn’t face one player at a time…he takes the best shot of an entire tour every time he shows up.  Critics seem intent on pointing out that Tiger picks and chooses when and where to show up, but such an argument is made irrelevant by the fact that Woods wins on a variety of courses when he decides to put the spikes on.  No one could compare Hoylake to Medinah or Torrey Pines, yet Tiger mastered each of them.

Federer, for all of his brilliance, still needs to win a French Open title to elevate himself into completely rarified air.  He has put himself among tennis legends, and arguably his only company in that pantheon might be Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Rod Laver, John McEnroe, and Pete Sampras.  But Woods is on the verge of being really lonely at the top, as only Jack Nicklaus remains in the conversation with Tiger as the greatest golfer of all-time.  Golf is not a game that lends itself to one man actually beating another.  In tennis, you stand across the net from the man you are trying to beat.  If you are better, you win.  Golf throws the course into the mix, and there is really very little one man can do to beat another.  One golfer cannot physically stand in the way of defeating another, unless it is a match play situation.  But somehow Woods does just that, with his mere presence becoming a legitimate physical impairment to his foes.  They always know when he is on the leaderboard, and that presence routinely causes outstanding professionals to turn into weekend hackers.  And then Tiger has nothing left but closing the deal…something he does as well as any competitor in any sport ever has.

If you watched any of the Buick Invitational last week on either the Golf Channel or CBS, you may still have a concussion from being beaten over the head with the PGA’s new FedEx Cup.  It was a shameless bit of promotion by the PGA and its broadcast partners, and I have no idea how they were able to get Nick Faldo to speak with enthusiasm on the contrived playoff system.  Faldo’s greatest strength has always been his candor and wit, yet there he was over the weekend, forced to play the company man and endorse this ridiculous concept.  They even had the Cup on hand, as if it was somehow a trophy steeped in tradition and worth having around as anything other than a place to take a crap if the nearest port-o-let was out of order.

People who love golf, love golf.  They don’t need some playoff (cue Jim Mora) system to give them a reason to watch.  And neither do I (at least not as long as Tiger is in the field).  People who don’t love golf, don’t…and they won’t be watching whether there’s a playoff or not.  The entire system is asinine, just like that of the Nextel Cup.  Apparently its only real purpose is to force the best players (Tiger and Phil) to play more often…which is something they won’t do.  Will Tiger try to win the FedEx Cup?  Sure, but only because winning is the only thing he knows how to do.  But not because he needs the $10 million in prize money and not because he’s trying to win as many FedEx Cups as Jack Nicklaus (who thankfully has zero).  He’s not going to change his preparation in pursuit of majors just so he can rack up an arbitrary number of points for a championship created out of thin air.  Mickelson isn’t going to spend less time with his family or less time binging on In and Out burgers because he is so passionate about putting a FedEx Cup on the mantle.  It’ll be nice for some guy to cash the winner’s check for the cool ten million, but in the long view of golf history being FedEx champ isn’t going to rival being the Masters champion or the winner of the U.S. Open.  At least not in my lifetime.

But it was nice of Jim Nantz to try and convince me otherwise…

Just for our Cowboy fans…SI.com’s Peter King has the latest on the Cowboy coaching search.  If Jerry Jones can get Emmitt Smith to come back as dance team coach, he’ll be well on his way to re-assembling the Cowboy dynasty of the early 90’s…

He is often treated as if he were a punchline, sometimes because of his appearance and his age and sometimes because of his unique baritone, but the fact of the matter is that as a human being, Dikembe Mutombo is no joke.  Athletically, Mutombo will be remembered as one of the finest shot-blockers in basketball history (he ranks second to Hakeem Olajuwon for most blocks in NBA history).  But Mutombo’s ultimate legacay will be that of a remarkable humanitarian.  An incredibly bright man (with degrees from Georgetown in linguistics and diplomacy, Mutombo has never forgotten the land from which he came.  It was Zaire when he left and is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.  He formed the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation to raise money to help improve living conditions in the Congo, and he has worked tirelessly within the NBA to garner financial support from his peers, and his efforts have also persuaded many of them to visit the Congo with him and perform clinics for the country’s youth.  His greatest single contribution to the people of his homeland is the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital (named for his mother) in his hometown of Kinshasa, the first new facility of its kind in the area in four decades.  Mutombo donated a total of over $18 million himself to the construction and completion of the $29 million dollar project.

In an era when professional athletes are often spoiled and socially ignorant and irresponsible, Mutombo is a shining example of how a man or woman can use their athletic gifts for the betterment of others.  His great care and compassion earned him a mention during the State of the Union address delivered by President Bush last night, as well as a seat among the honored guests.  Mutombo is a credit to his homeland and to his profession, and it is his character, rather than his prodigious height, that will always make him a giant among men.

Bill Parcells is finished after four years in Dallas.  The two-time Super Bowl champ has chosen to walk away with his health and sanity reasonably intact at the age of 65.  Jerry Jones now has to find a head coach that can take a very talented roster and get it past the psychological scarring of the heartbreaking playoff loss to Seattle.  All the pieces are in place, assuming that Tony Romo the quarterback can be unaffected by the error of Tony Romo the holder.  I wonder…does Jones pick up the phone and try to convince Bill Cowher to come out of his brief retirement?  Does he try to mend fences with the man who built a dynasty in Dallas so many years ago, Jimmy Johnson?  Or does he follow the model that worked so well for him when he hired Johnson…bringing in a championship-winning coach from a school in Florida?  Hmm?  Could Urban Meyer be lured to Big D?  What say you, Darth Reagan?

Well, hooray for Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning.  Two of the really good guys in sports finally have their title shot.  And I couldn’t possibly want to throw up any more.  Don’t get me wrong; I like and respect both Dungy and Manning, but the Colts reached a Boston Red Sox level (especially in the media) of pity as far as the whole “Oh the poor Colts” angle goes about a year ago.  Nobody deserves championships, you know.  They have to be earned, and lots of great coaches and players have had brilliant careers and never earned a ring.  By the same token, lots of mediocre coaches and mediocre players have ridden the coattails of great performers to earn a championship ring.  Super Bowl titles should not be the only defining factor in evaluating a coach or player’s career.  But now, thanks to a sieve-like Patriots defense and a relentless Colts offense, we all get two weeks of heartwarming stories about Manning finally clearing the New England hurdle…plus around a thousand stories about the friendship between Tony Dungy and the equally classy Lovie Smith…plus another thousand stories about the success of the coaches on Dungy’s Tampa staff and the soon-to-be legendary ‘Tampa Two’ defense.  So just gag me now…

On a serious note…It is a great illustration of how a positive continuity can bring success.  A great deal of credit must be given to the Colts management.  A key member of the management team is Bill Polian, who not coincidentally was instrumental in building the Buffalo Bills teams that came oh-so-close to being a dynasty in their own right in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  Polian also helped the Carolina Panthers hit the ground running when they came into the league before moving on to Indy.  So don’t forget Polian when making a list of guys who deserve a Super Bowl ring.  He and owner Jim Irsay have constantly tweaked the roster, but ever since they brought Tony Dungy in, they have not wavered from their focus, a focus built on the considerable talents of Manning and Marvin Harrison on offense, and the collection of speed on defense.  The Colts have also managed to keep a very underrated (and underappreciated) offensive line together under the tutelage of Howard Mudd, and Tom Moore has been there every step of the way as Manning has become an on-the-field version of his offensive coordinator.  The entire organization has done a tremendous job of holding its core together in the salary cap era, despite the fact that there have been calculated casualties suffered (most notably Edgerrin James).  But they have done an outstanding job in the draft, always mining great young talent, whether it be Reggie Wayne, Joseph Addai, Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeney, or Marlin Jackson.  And, the occasional savvy free agent signing hasn’t hurt, either…see Vinatieri, Adam.

As the next two weeks focus on Dungy and his close friend across the field, you can expect that Dungy will finally begin to receive credit for being a football genius in his own right.  Dungy has long had to endure the criticisms that he is too nice to win championships (you remember Mr. Vander-choke, don’t you?), but the fact of the matter is that Dungy has a toughness few men possess.  A standout quarterback at Minnesota, Dungy had to deal with the typical position change that almost every black quarterback had to deal with when coming into the NFL.  He was a solid contributor with the Steelers for a couple of seasons during the Steel Curtain days, even leading the club in interceptions as a safety in 1978, and he recovered a fumble in the Steelers’ Super Bowl XIII victory.  For all of his contributions, he was traded twice in a year, and he was cut at his last stop by the New York Giants…a move that led to his career in coaching.  Dungy spent fifteen years as a defensive backs coach and a defensive coordinator before he finally got his chance as a head coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Dungy took the Bucs from a laughingstock to the cusp of the Super Bowl, right before he got tossed over the side…because Tampa needed somebody tougher…

Few could have been tougher, or better said, stronger, than Dungy was last year when his son James committed suicide.  Dungy handled the situation with his typical grace, even in the face of Indianapolis’ frustrating playoff loss to Pittsburgh.  Dungy appears to be one of those rare characters with great character, a man who doesn’t ask…why me?…at least not publicly.  Not when the team he built from the ground up won the Super Bowl without him, not when his Colts suffered one playoff setback after another, and not when he lost his oldest child.  That is why you can root for Tony Dungy, even if we get one too many stories about the Tampa Two and his old coaching staff (another former member of the staff, Mike Tomlin is expected to replace Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh).  Dungy is a true champion, and the fact that he and Lovie Smith have become the first African-American coaches to reach a Super Bowl cannot be applauded enough.

But you do realize that this means another thirty Peyton Manning commercials, don’t you?

In other quarterback news, my proposed Michael Vick deal to Oakland can’t happen.  CBS’ Charley Casserly notes that the salary cap ramifications would be to severe for the Falcons to part with Vick, either by cutting or trading him.  Sorry, Mr. Davis.  I guess you’ll just have to groom one of those young quarterback prospects…if you can ever hire a coach.  Casserly also dropped this bit of knowledge concerning the Raiders…Lane Kiffin (son of Tampa defensive guru, Monte Kiffin…see I told you the Tampa coaching staff story would never die), part of the Sarkisian-Kiffin offensive wonder twins at USC who appeared to be Steve Sarkisian’s choice as offensive coordinator if Sarkisian took the Raiders job, is supposed to interview again with Oaktown to see if HE might be a fit as the Raiders new head man.  Very interesting…And finally, I suppose the Falcons can feel better about their Mr. Vick.  It seems he has been exonerated in the “hey man…is that marijuana in your secret water bottle compartment” case.  And that is certainly a relief.  I guess those were just special marijuana-flavored Altoids he was hiding in the SECRET COMPARTMENT IN HIS WATER BOTTLE!!!  But at least now you know what to get for that friend who has everything…his very own superspy water canteen….thanks, Mike

Oakland Raiders, meet rock bottom.  As if the descent from their Super Bowl appearance a mere four seasons ago hadn’t been steep enough, now the 2-14 Raiders can’t even hire a head coach.  The top two candidates for the job, former All-Pro wideout James Lofton and current USC offensive wunderkind Steve Sarkisian (the Trojans quarterbacks coach), have pulled out of the running for the opening.  Lofton had met with Raiders officials earlier in the week, but no formal offer was made.  Sarkisian, who at 32, would have become the youngest head coach in the league, had served as the Raiders QB coach in 2004.  No formal details have been revealed, but it is believed that Sarkisian was offered a contract, and the Raiders interviewed USC offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin with the intention of making him Sarkisian’s top assistant.  It certainly appeared that Oakland though it had its next head coach…but now you have to wonder if Al Davis might have to ask Tom Flores to come back…

Even deposed Arizona Cardinals coach Denny Green turned down an interview (although Green might still be interested if a formal offer was made in his direction…it would reunite him with Randy Moss) for the position.  Davis still has current Raider defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and Jim Fassel on the short list, but it would appear that he might have to search further for his next field boss.  So while Al’s trying to con somebody into to coming into the Black Hole…let me make a suggestion as a guest general manager…

It’s time to take a page from your checkered past, Al, and play father figure to the kind of wayward soul that once brought excellence to the field in Oakland.  It’s time to pick up the phone, call Arthur Blank, and bring Michael Vick to Oaktown.  Thanks to Vick’s little ‘my water bottle doubles as the place to hide my pot’ incident and the Falcons recent downturn in the standings, a potential franchise talent could be yours for the picking.  I don’t know about the salary cap implications (Vick’s contract could be a cap stumbling block), but here’s what makes sense in my head: Offer the Falcons the overall #1 pick in the draft and malcontent wide receiver Jerry Porter for Vick and one of the Falcons butterfingered wideouts (Michael Jenkins or Roddy White).  The Falcons have a quality second quarterback in Matt Schaub, and he could keep the seat warm in Hotlanta until Brady Quinn or JaMarcus Russell was ready to run the show for Bobby Petrino.  Or, if Petrino thought Schaub was a viable long-term answer under center, then the Falcons could take a hometown favorite and all-around good citizen in Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson.

It’s a beautiful scenario.  The Falcons could either get another franchise talent at quarterback, or they could choose to go with the talented Schaub and build an offensive powerhouse with the newly-acquired Porter, Johnson, Alge Crumpler, Warrick Dunn, and Jerious Norwood.  The Raiders would get a huge (but admittedly, erratic) talent at quarterback, and they would still have the Falcons pick (#10) in the first round, a pick they could use to select talent in the running game (like a Bay-Area standout like Cal’s Marshawn Lynch or OU’s Adrian Peterson) or perhaps a gamebreaking receiving-returning threat (OSU’s Ted Ginn, Jr.) or maybe even some offensive line help.  Their defense was really very good in 2006, and it is entirely possible (if a bit unlikely) that the chronically erratic Vick and the chronically underachieving Moss could bond and become an unstoppable force…a development that could make the Raiders a winner before Davis’ deal with the devil expires.

And at the very least, I can see two very positive outcomes…One, if Vick pulls into Oakland, Moss gets a place to hide his pot…and two, Davis has a reason to change his slogan from ‘Committment to Excellence’ to ‘Committment to Incense’…

If you are looking for a humorous read…and if you follow golf at all…you’ll enjoy SI.com’s Alan Shipnuck today.  Shipnuck covers golf for Sports Illustrated and its dotcom on a year-round basis, and he is a perpetual smartass.  He spares the needle for no one (not even Tiger), and the object of his ridicule today is the somewhat slimmer Phil Mickelson as Mickelson returns to the Tour at the Bob Hope (first man to 30 under wins).  Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel provides a look at the remarkable charm and fortune of Tom Brady, and Barry Bonds says Mark McGwire and Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame.

Tubby Smith critics are having a rough month-plus.  The ‘Cats are on an 11-game winning streak and perfect thus far in the SEC.  Neither the streak nor the SEC victories have come against anybody really good (although the Indiana win is looking better all the time), but even the harshest Kentucky critics would have to admit that Coach Smith has his club playing well (and Pat Forde did just that).  Kentucky is playing its usually stifling defense (holding South Carolina to sub-27 percent shooting on Tuesday night), and behind the efforts of Randolph Morris, Joe Crawford, and Ramel Bradley, the offense looks almost competent at times.  Morris has played well all year, Crawford has recently caught fire from beyond the arc, and rapid-fire Bradley has been surprisingly consistent, especially with the emergence of freshman Derrick Jasper, who lightens Bradley’s load running the offense.  Perhaps most importantly, this year’s edition of the ‘Cats seems to be a happy, cohesive, and stable one, as opposed to the running soap opera that played in Lexington a year ago.  The departures of feuding backcourtmates Rajon Rondo (to the Boston Celtics) and Patrick Sparks, plus the season-long services of the rapidly maturing Morris has helped make everything sunny (so far) in Big Blue Nation.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Darth Reagan’s Florida Gators have climbed back to the top perch in the college hoop polls (say, don’t they play football down in Gainesville, too?), and they already own a #1 seed in ESPN.com’s Bracketology.  Kentucky grabs a six seed, and my kindred spirit, Bob Knight, sneaks his Red Raiders in with one of the last four at-large seeds, with an 11…and Joe Lunardi just couldn’t resist…he provided them a matchup with The General’s favorite crimson and cream squad, the Hoosiers.  If only such a thing could come to pass…give Myles Brand a courtside seat, and we’d be looking at good times…

If you can’t get enough of early bubble talk on March Madness, you might also enjoy Andy Glockner’s initial offering of his Bubble Watch.  And as an additional bonus, if you have any questions about what might be lurking behind any of ESPN’s insider links, feel free to email me at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com or leave me your query on the comments board, and I will give you the inside scoop.  I finally broke down and paid to be an Insider (gag!) for a couple of reasons.  One, I needed access to archived work so that I might continue to bash their writers, and two, greater access to the whole site gives me more ammunition for…surprise…bashing their writers.  And as a bonus, I get ESPN the Magazine, and I am counting on it to be a great asset in the bathroom.  Because as I have noted before…sometimes you do run out of toilet paper…

I should probably be talking about reports that Barry Bonds tested positive for amphetamines last year…but I don’t care.  Plus, I’m still trying to sort out whether or not Barry got the amphetamines from Mark Sweeney’s locker or from an anal…excuse me…alien probe.  I did do my work based on material coming out of San Francisco, however, from none other than the bane of Barry’s existence, The San Francisco Chronicle.  Chronicle writer Gwen Knapp (one of the few staffers not jailed in the BALCO case) is a Hall of Fame voter, and apparently she chose not to vote for former Bay Area Basher Mark McGwire ths year.  She is also apparently steamed about some of the mean things being said about her (and by her I mean those who blackballed Big Mac) by McGwire supporters.

Knapp writes that morals should matter when it comes to the Hall vote, and you MUST read her column before reading mine.  Or my column will read like utter nonsense (and it still might, as it turns out).  In what appears to be a brand new and ongoing series, here’s my open letter to Ms. Knapp…

He doesn’t take it quite as far as I intend to, but ESPN.com’s Jim Caple provides an excellent read on the hypocrisy that has made Mark McGwire a national pariah.  The McGwire angle is reason enough to read Caple’s piece, but he also provides some interesting notes on more of the insanity that is the BBWAA’s Hall voting history. 

I hate the Hall of Fame.  HATE IT.  Or more accurately, I should say,  the men who vote for it.  Like death and taxes, that the Baseball Writers Association of America is going to completely ruin my day one afternoon in January is absolutely a certainty.  And they hypocrisy surrounding Mark McGwire’s candidacy is only part of the problem…

You realize, of course, that the BBWAA has never…NEVER…voted in a player unanimously in all of the years they have been the electorate.  Not once.  Not Hank Aaron.  Not Willie Mays.  Tom Seaver has come the closest to perfection (98.84%), and Tom Terrific could have been passed yesterday by Cal Ripken, Jr., but Ripken was torpedoed by two voters (of the eight who didn’t vote for him) turning in BLANK ballots in protest of players from the ‘Steroid Era’.  Common sense, I suppose, is not enshrined in Cooperstown anywhere, because how the hell could you not vote for Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Cal Ripken, Jr., or Tony Gwynn (the other member of the ‘07 class) for the Hall?  Ripken and Gwynn embodied everything good about the game of baseball, and the only performance-enhancer Gwynn ever ingested was the post-game buffet (where he was, and is, an addict).

The McGwire Issue (as well as the future referendums on Bonds, Palmeiro, Sosa, et al) is one that requires a column (and an epic one at that) all its own.  And it will be addressed here, to be certain.  But here (again) is my biggest problem with the voters: the treatment of a group of great players from the 1980’s…a group of players, it should be noted, with no steroid stigma attached to them.  What happens to these guys, though?  Their vote totals (with a few exceptions) get lower by the year, as if they have somehow gotten worse with the passage of time.  I realize that Don Mattingly is my personal Hall project, and I may be irretrievably biased where his candidacy is concerned.  But Mattingly has now seen his vote total dwindle (from a high of 128 votes in his first year on the ballot) by 74 votes in the last five years (down to 54).  Two-time MVP Dale Murphy suffers a similar fate, and Murph’s total dropped to 50 votes this year.  All this while some smartass took the time to give Jay Buhner a vote, which at least isn’t as bad as the five votes Hal Morris got last year.

I mean, really.  Do these idiots think they are funny?  And for a bunch of people who act as though their vote is a sacred thing, isn’t spending part of it on guys who have no business even being on the ballot a slap in the face to the entire process?  What goes through the mind of somebody who votes for Bobby Bonilla (and two wise guys did that)?

The announcement of the Hall selections should be a gloriously happy day each year.  But for me, it’ll be a sad day every single year.  At least until somebody is smart enough to take the vote away from a group of people that is largely petty, mean-spirited, and ignorant of what being a ballplayer is all about.

There’s plenty of good stuff out there…but here’s a couple of decent reads on what went down in Cooperstown.  Jayson Stark of ESPN.com breaks down the voting, and Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports provides commentary on Ripken, Gwynn, and McGwire.

It was early November in 2004 when I got together with some old friends in Louisville.  One of those friends was my colleague here at The High Court, Darth Reagan.  Darth was in a celebratory mood, thanks to the recent Election Day triumph of George W. Bush.  But his joy was tempered a bit by the fact that his Florida Gators were playing the role of SEC also-ran in the last days of the Ron Zook era.  Darth still pined for the glory days of the Godfather of Florida football, Steve Spurrier, but at that time he has his mind set on a defensive genius for the post at Gainesville, somebody like, say, Bob Stoops.  I had to mention to him that I thought the perfect fit for the Gators might be this talented and driven coach at Utah, a fellow named Urban Meyer.  Darth was a bit skeptical at first as I recall, but I think you could say he’s pretty sold on this Meyer fellow now…

I was fortunate enough to reach Darth via phone last night as his Gators dotted the ‘EYES (both of them) all over the greater Phoenix area and, by extension, all over Ohio.  I found him bunkered down in his very own Swamp-like setting, watching the Gators with a group of die-hards and waiting for Meyer to get the Gatorade shower he so richly deserved.  His first words to me were instructions not to jinx his ballclub, even though Florida led 34-14 at the time.  I assured him the title was locked up, and by the time Tim Tebow plunged into the end zone for a 41-14 advantage, I think he actually believed it too…

So if you see a 6-5 guy bearing a strong resemblance to Magnum P.I. (sadly, minus the fabulous mustache) wandering the highways of central Florida with a cold beer in his hand and a smile on his face, it just might be our man Darth, still basking in the Gators second football national championship.  We hope to hear from the voice of Gator Nation in the days to come, and we will celebrate Gator Week here at The High Court in his honor (much to the chagrin of our good friend, The UT Volunteer).

And by the way Darth…are you ready for next year’s title game…Tim Tebow versus J.D. Booty for all the marbles?

The High Court has found its docket gathering dust for the better part of two months, but with the dawning of a new year it is time for The Chief to get back to work.  I begin 2007 doing something I have rarely done in our nearly two years of existence…asking (perhaps begging) for readers and participation.  It is my hope that we can fill our gallery up with a number of insightful readers that will provide their own commentary on the appropriately named COMMENTS board.  You can find access to that comments board at the end of any blog entry, and one must simply register a user name and have a password to participate.  There’s no cost (at least not yet) and anyone can feel free to speak their mind (within civilized reason, of course) on any subject.  It is also my hope that The High Court will develop into quite the discussion community, one that serves as a springboard for hundreds of ideas.  My readers have always provided great literary inspiration, be it with their unique take on a subject or the questions that are born of debate.  I hope that we can gain a least a new reader a day in the new year and that each new reader will find the material here of high enough quality to pass on to others.

My initial offering here in ‘07 centers around one of my favorite targets, ESPN.com’s Pat Forde.  Forde is actually a pretty good guy, and he is an outstanding writer.  I just seem to find myself on the other side of most issues he writes about.  This time it was his filleting of former Dolphins (and brand new Alabama gridiron boss) head coach Nick Saban that got my attention.  All of us that follow the game know that Saban has always been quick to pick up his suitcase whenever it suited his ambition or his bank account, but I must say that I have been puzzled by the knee-jerk anger directed at Saban because he had the audacity to say that he had no intention of taking the Alabama job as he tried to finish his season in Miami.  His actions spurred Forde to labal Saban ‘liar’, a charge that I believe is more than a bit harsh given the nature of the “lie”.

Here is my open email to Mr. Forde concerning his column on Saban…

The great thing about not being missed is that you don’t feel rushed to come back.  But out of the blue this weeked came an email from a loyal reader requesting my return after a lengthy hiatus, and hey, you can’t disappoint your audience (even if it is a tiny one…Ok, especially if it’s a tiny one).  My return this week will probably be a bit limited due to the holiday, but you can expect The High Court to be up and running again in the coming weeks.

As most of you already know, legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler died last week, his death coming on the eve of the titanic showdown between his beloved Wolverines and the Buckeyes of Ohio State.  Bo’s boys fought the good fight in his honor, before finally falling to OSU 42-39 in Columbus.  Schembechler’s passing, and the fact that it came the day before the annual showdown between Michigan and Ohio State, provided something of a cosmic intersection for some of the legendary coaching figures in collegiate history.

Schembechler, you see, while being best known for coaching the Maize and Blue, also once worked on the sidelines in Columbus for his friend and mentor, Woody Hayes.  Hayes had coached Schembechler for a year at Miami (Ohio) University (where Schembechler would have his first collegiate head coaching job…and by the way, Miami had each of these coaches pace their sideline as head coach…Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank, Sid Gillman, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, and Bo Schembechler.  Not bad, eh?), and Hayes would eventually bring Schembechler to his staff at Ohio State.  Hayes was an exceedingly tough leader who loved to pair a punishing ground game with stout defense.  Schembechler’s great Michigan teams would follow that model closely for the first decade of his tenure in Ann Arbor, and even when Schembechler began to embrace the pass more, his Wolverine teams always stayed with the foundation of the run.

You can’t think of Schembechler without thinking of the controversial Hayes, a man who was as legendary for his sideline blow-ups as he was for his coaching acumen.  Hayes’ career was ended by his infamous punching of a Clemson player (Charlie Bauman) during the 1978 Gator Bowl.  That was just one of many incidents over the course of his career that got just as much attention as his coaching success.  He threw a punch at a sportswriter, tried to fight Iowa head coach Forest Evashevski, and shoved various cameras and cameramen.  So I suppose it isn’t surprising to know that Hayes was revered by a young man who played on Ohio State’s 1960 NCAA basketball national champions (with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek), a young man named…

…Bobby Knight.  As everyone knows (and has seen), Knight (that’s Coach Knight to you, buddy) is in the middle of controversy again, this time for popping the chin of Texas Tech sophomore Michael Prince.  Prince says everything’s fine, Prince’s parents say everything is fine (publicly, anyway), and Texas Tech Athletic Director (and longtime Knight pal) Gerald Myers says everything is fine.  Ah, but the media…they say everything ain’t fine in West Texas.  Most of the media, that is…including Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis, who argues the ‘you can’t ever hit a player’ and ‘Knight is a shameless bully’ angle.  Which is truly original, since we’ve NEVER heard that one before.  A much better read on the subject comes (shockingly) from the normally detestable Dan Wetzel.  Wetzel deserves kudos for absolutely killing ESPN and their handling of the Knight coverage, as he points to a glaring double standard.  If you read the column, take note of the fact that ABC/ESPN producers did not use a F-bomb-laden interview with a highly irritated Lloyd Carr, yet consistently ran and re-ran the Knight footage.  Wetzel doesn’t defend Knight, and maybe Knight doesn’t deserve defending, but he does a fine job of taking ESPN out to the woodshed.  That alone is worth the time it takes to read the column.

As a matter of full disclosure, I love Bobby Knight.  I think he is the finest college basketball coach of all time, and I believe that it is fitting that he will soon pass Dean Smith for the mark as the leading winner in men’s NCAA Division I history.  And while I don’t agree with everything he has ever done or all of his coaching tactics, I certainly understand them and the time from which they come.

My first high school basketball coach played for Knight at Indiana.  Let’s just say that the man was VERY influenced by his time in Bloomington.  Playing for him was a very difficult thing to do.  He was highly demanding, and he was even more intimidating.  He was, like Knight, a big man with a physical presence that backed up his tough demeanor.  On more than one occasion I was sent to the scorer’s table almost airborne, flung by my jersey as if I was child’s doll.  I was berated, cussed, and broken down verbally on countless occasions.  He once spent a timeout with thirty seconds left in the game, with our team trailing by 24 points, just to humiliate me as he screamed at me alone on the floor (he had sent my teammates to the bench) in front of five thousand people for giving up a dunk by not trying to take a charge on the opposing team’s 6′7″ center.  To be honest, I would have rather he hit me in the mouth.

But you know what?  He never had to tell me to take a charge again.  He taught me to play defense.  He made me box out.  He made me take care of the basketball.  He added a ton of skills and toughness to the one thing I could already do (shoot the basketball).  He taught me how to study film.  He laid the foundation for everything I know about the game of basketball.  He made me a better player and he made me a better person.  Behind closed doors, he always put back together the pieces he had broken apart in front of everyone.  He explained that if he ever stopped being hard on me it would be an indication that he no longer believed that I could be a contributor.  He always managed to remind me that I was a good player, just not good enough yet.  And he always made it clear that he wasn’t attacking a person, he was building a basketball player.

So it is with Bob Knight.  Bob Knight’s greatest transgression is probably a failure to change with the times.  Saying that isn’t meant to exonerate him of wrongdoing in matters where he truly made a mistake.  But popping a kid’s chin up to get his attention or grabbing him by the jersey isn’t the same as choking somebody or puching someone.  Many of Knight’s critics deride him for the ways in which he attempts to instill discipline, hooting that it seems hypocritical that he bullies and has no self-discipline.  Maybe that is true, and maybe it isn’t, but for my money, Knight has always attempted to teach TOUGHNESS, and the style he employs has always meant to challenge players and winnow the weak from the strong.  Almost without fail, those players that have been able to handle Knight’s personality have gone on to be successful, as either basketball players or members of the professional world.  They are truly battle-tested, and yes, they are disciplined.  Just ask Jarrious Jackson, Tech’s leading returning scorer, who was booted off the team until he got his grades back in order.

Bob Knight has always worked hard to run his program in an ethically-sound way.  He has always worked hard to help his players, whether it be in basketball or getting into graduate schools (because they do graduate) or in getting jobs.  He’s no saint, but he isn’t pure evil, either.  He’s just a very talented, very flawed human being.  And like all of us, he deserves to be graded for his entire body of work, not just his mistakes.

Condolences to my Republican friends out there who are likely looking at a Capitol Hill sweep at the hands of the Democrats.  But take heart, because if history is any indicator, you can expect the Republicans to re-take Congress in 2014 when Hillary Clinton is in the sixth year of her two-term Presidency…

If I say ‘Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’, does that make you yearn for the days of Tip O’Neill?

Our good friend Sammy was back on the comments board yesterday, and he wondered aloud if the never-ending screech of campaign advertising had turned off the American electorate (on almost every level) or if we had simply reached an all-time low for apathetic voting behavior.  He also pointed out that you can make the argument that a mere 25% of the eligible electorate ends up setting the course of the nation.  And that’s a bit shocking, isn’t it?

I would definitely agree that campaign advertising…most of which ends up being negative…has reached critical mass in terms of overkill.  For those of us in the four-state area of Kentucky-Illinois-Missouri-Tennessee, one more Claire McCaskill or Rod Blagojevich ad would have been enough to push us beyond sanity.  An increasingly disturbing trend is the presence of party ads, as the Democrats and Republicans inject themselves as a party into these races.  As if it wasn’t bad enough to have to listen to candidates bash each other’s heads in, now the parties want to join the fray.  Enough is enough, especially when none of the candidates are willing to campaign on their own strengths.  It is a sad commentary on the state of American politics when we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, and it is a practice that has no doubt turned some potential voters off from the process altogether.

Based on some early numbers from yesterday’s election turnout, however, I would say that we are not quite as apathetic and turned off as we sometimes appear.  Galvanizing Senate races in Ohio and Virginia brought voters out in relative droves, with Ohioans turning out at 44.3 percent (unofficially), up from 38.4 percent in the 2002 mid-terms.  The numbers were even more striking in Virginia, where 43.7 percent of eligible voters hit the polls, compared to 29.2 percent in ‘02.  Early overall numbers had the national number at slightly over 40 percent, which was nearly indentical to the 39.7 percent turnout in 2002.  While the improvement might not seem significant, the final numbers (certain to be aided a bit with numbers from California and Washington are tallied) from the 2006 election could approach the highest mid-term turnout in recent years, 42.1 percent in 1982.

Unfortunately for my aforementioned Republican pals, Democrats got to the polls at a higher rate than Republicans this time around, outpolling the Republicans for the first time since 1990.  So somebody decided to care more this time around, and the question here is the same as in the title:  Are you OK with that?  It’s a fair question to ask, because frankly, I doubt that everyone is OK with the results of yesterday’s races.  It would be nice if we could all be noble and say that we just want the process to work properly and for democracy to soldier on.  The truth, however, is that many of us are only fans of the process when the party of our choice ends up in power…

The real problem with voter apathy, as I see it, is that our representative form of government makes the common man feel as though they are actually powerless to set the course of the nation.  Sammy suggested that 25% or less of us are setting the course of the nation; I would say the number is signficantly less, along the lines of say, less than 1%.  It is those that we choose to represent us that set the course of the nation, and it is only every two, four, and six years that we have an opportunity to weigh in and change that direction, a direction that we can only change gradually, by a few degrees at a time.  And here is a sad reality: Until we all begin to do a better job, a more diligent job, in educating ourselves as an electorate, you could make the argument that few of us deserve the right to set the course of the nation.

Voting is truly a privilege, and it isn’t one that should be taken lightly or for granted.  The reason that this country needs representative government (along with the fact that pure democracy would be a bit unwieldy, to say the least) is that decision-makers must be well-educated on every issue that comes before them.  We, the electorate, certainly are not.  We rarely know what either party stands for, much less the revolving door of candidates that come before us.  We vote based on ridiculous rationale, things like party affiliation, ‘he’s not as bad as the other guy’, and ‘he has nice hair’.  I don’t mean to say that every voter goes to the polls ignorant of the important issues to be decided within, but most do.  When that’s the case, we might be better off if they had stayed home…

How to change it?  I don’t know.  For starters, we could turn the major news networks off and dig out some information for ourselves.  Read party platforms.  Research issues and candidates.  And here’s a novel idea.  We could change the way in which we look at elections.  Instead of rating their importance based on NATIONAL issues and candidates, we rate them based on LOCAL issues and candidates.  The fact of the matter is, most of us will find our everyday lives changed more by what is going on in our own backyard, as opposed to the grinding of the gears inside the Beltway.  If we can learn to take care of our own business at home, business which is not disturbed in the least by whatever Tim Russert or Katie Couric or Bill O’Reilly thinks, we might eventually be able to go to the polls as an informed and intelligent electorate.

Because if we are going to stay stupid, we might as well stay home…

As a postscript to my buddies who may still be gritting their teeth after a big day for the Democrats, feel free to vent on the comments board.  That’s what it’s there for…

From Roger Miller’s voice to Saddam Hussein’s ears…As you have no doubt heard by now, the deposed Iraqi dictator (or despot, if Darth Reagan is tuning in) was sentenced to death by hanging, along with six subordinates, for the killing of 148 Shiites (Hussein had accused them of trying to assasinate him) in the town of Dujail in 1982.  Reaction in Iraq was mixed, as was expected, based largely on the demographics of each area.  Many Sunni loyalists condemned the sentence, while Shiite enclaves celebrated Saddam’s death sentence.  Global reaction was also mixed, as most European nations decried (as is their custom) the use of capital punishment.

All the commentary is just a bit premature, however, as Hussein has the right to appeal to a nine-judge panel that can take an unlimited amount of time to decide whether or not he should indeed be put to death.  If the panel does uphold the death sentence, Hussein would have to be hanged within 30 days.  So if you’re scoring at home, that’s forever plus 30 days and counting for ol’ Saddam…

The common complaints about Saddam’s sentence range from the usual (the death penalty is cruel and unusual), to the political (this is merely a Bush administration-engineered attempt to garner mid-term votes), and to the strangely ironic (the Vatican said it was a throwback to eye-for-an eye vengeance).  What, they don’t have a copy of the Old Testament anywhere in Vatican City?  There are also those that say Saddam should be held accountable for more of his crimes, which would be fine if the Iraqi justice system had seemed capable of trying him the first time around.  This is why when you find a despicable, murderous tyrant hiding in a hole you put a bullet in him and cover up the hole.  They just aren’t worth the headache…

The sad thing is this…as justice is hopefully close to finding Saddam Hussein, the validity of that justice will be held in question because it was George W. Bush’s invasion that led to Hussein’s removal as dictator and to the capture that placed him in front of an Iraqi court.  And while it is fair to question whether or not the United States should have invaded Iraq, to suggest that the Hussein case has been a miscarriage of justice is ridiculous.  The country of Iraq may or may not be better off without Hussein in power, but this much is certain:  Saddam Hussein is a legendary figure in the annals of tyranny, torture, and murder.  And that legend was well-earned.  If and when Hussein finds himself swinging at the end of the noose, the only question should be this:  Did he deserve worse?

I mentioned my old colleague, Darth Reagan, earlier, and I hope Darth stops by today, because I’m getting around to one of his favorite people, Bill Maher.  Maher, host of HBO’s ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’, is a hard-core left-winger for those of you not familiar with his work.  A comedian and comedic writer by trade, Maher has also dabbled as an actor and producer, and prior to ‘Real Time’ he hosted ‘Politically Incorrect’.  His shtick is pretty much right over the top…he bashes all things Conservative and Republican, most notably George W. Bush.  To be fair, Maher also sticks to his fellow Liberals and Democrats when they don’t get the job done, but mostly he’s going to spend his time killing the Conservative Right.  The mere mention of his name brings Darth’s Conservative blood to a boil, but I have mostly been amused by Maher and his format.

You can see him coming from miles away; he is as subtle on the left as Rush Limbaugh is on the right.  He sets his stage just the same way every Friday night…a prominent Hollywood liberal or two (think Alec Baldwin or Ben Affleck), a well-educated liberal from journalism or academia (like professor and author Michael Eric Dyson), and at least one conservative journalist or member of Congress (maybe say, Ann Coulter).  The presence of the Conservative point of view is meant to say that, hey, this is fair…when in fact the Conservative is merely fodder for the Liberal buzzsaw Maher is about to crank up.  It has never really bothered me, because Maher is funny and he is (believe it or not, Darth) sometimes even insightful.  And it isn’t like he’s trying to sell himself as a non-partisan expert.  So where’s the harm?

Well…that thought didn’t stop him from getting my ire up this week.  Maher was apparently upset that the Bush administration and other Republicans had politicized John Kerry’s so-called ‘botched joke’, a joke that had basically categorized every member of our Armed Forces as academic failures.  Maher was also furious that Democrats had pulled away from Kerry on the campaign trail and that some members of the party had criticized him for his statements (including Hillary Clinton).  Maher then went on to compare Kerry’s comments with some of Bush’s finest malaprops, those brutally painful moments when the President mangles the English language.

It isn’t the same thing, Billy.  You can act like it’s unfair to criticize Kerry for his ‘mistake’ and allow Bush to get away with his linguistic errors all you want, but that is absolutely nuts.  The President has a tendency to use the wrong word; that has nothing to do with his intent.  Kerry used the wrong word, too, but his intention was as clear as day.  His joke wasn’t botched; it was inappropriate.  To suggest that the men and women serving our country in Iraq where there because they had failed academically was ridiculously stupid to think, much less to joke about.  I’m not sure what is worse…the fact that Kerry thinks the harsh criticism is unfair because he mishandled the ‘joke’, or that he isn’t smart enough to realize that even if his intent was to attack the President, using the men and women serving in our military as part of a joke is completely disrespectful.  He was wrong, and a simple apology the day of the comments would have been fine.  Kerry probably didn’t even write the line meant to draw a few laughs in a pro-Democrat audience; it was probably composed by a staff member.  But they came out of his mouth, and he is accountable.  Saying he was sorry would have been the right thing to do, and Bill Maher should know that as well as John Kerry…

Finally, since Maher makes his living writing POLITICAL humor, he should know that in the arena, everything is fair game.  Maher turns every single thing George Bush, Republicans, and Christians do into political humor…whether it is appropriate or not.  When a Republican makes a ridiculous comment (see Allen, George, Senator from Virigina), Democrats are going to make political hay out of it.  The same is true in reverse, as John Kerry can now tell you.  The way any and everything can become a political football might not be right and it may not be fair.  But politics, like life, is a far cry from fair.  Sorry, Mr. Maher…