The Fayetteville, Ark.-based reality show that is the University of Arkansas athletics off’d one of its key characters Saturday when longtime AD and football coach Frank Broyles announced his resignation.

Broyles’ resignation, some believe, is a result of pressure from boosters and other influential people around the program over the soap opera that the football team has become.

In his column on ESPN.com, Pat Forde (more…)

Last night, I tuned in, for reasons unknown to even me, to watch the NBA’s Slam Dunk contest. I was interested in seeing how Tyrus Thomas would respond in the wake of his labeling of the slam dunk prize as “free money.” Before that, I was subjected to the skills competition. What I was witnessed to was the most lackadaisical, borderline disrespectful display that I’ve seen in a while. What I was was Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James downright jogging through the obstacle course. This is why people are so turned off to the NBA. It was a joke to see LeBron James, the face of the league, trot through an obstacle course, trot to the bench and put his warm-ups back on. If the players don’t care about what they’re doing then why should I or anyone else? Where’s a lockout when you need one?

The Miami Herald is reporting that there’s a chance that Scottie Pippen, who recently announced his intent to rejoin the NBA, could land with the Miami Heat.

For those of you keeping track at home, the Heat roster currently features the following players and ages: Gary Payton, 38, Alonzo Mourning, 37, Eddie Jones, 35, Shaquille O’Neal, who turns 35 next month. What’s next? I mean, are the Heatin negotiation in Shawn “The Death Stick” Bradley?

I’m not going to blast Pippen for coming back or criticize him for “ruining his legacy” or any of the other reasons people don’t like to see players come out of retirement. If he actually believes he can still play at a high level and wants to give it a shot, I say ‘Why Not?’ If he, or anyone for that matter, thinks that he’s going to log serious minutes and make any kind of significant impact on the floor, they’re nuts.

Today on ESPN.com, Ivan Maisel writes that the rest of the Pac-10 has caught up with USC and therefore could be the best conference in college football going into next season.

Going into this season, I was on the Pac-10 bandwagon. I knew USC was still the best team in the conference but Cal was a tough draw as was Oregon, Dirk Koetter had things going well in Tempe and Mike Stoops was turning around Arizona. And then it happened. The Golden Bears went into Rocky Top to play the Vols, who were still reeling after failing to make a bowl the season before.

Nate Longshore looked pitiful and got pulled, Joe Ayoob came in and looked just as bad, Cal couldn’t cover anybody and Marshawn Lynch was rendered useless. And that was when I turned on the Pac-10.

Regardless of what happened toward the end of the last season (read: It doesn’t matter that UCLA beat USC and ruined their chance at a national title), USC is still one of the premier programs in the country and certainly the elite program in the Pac-10. Other teams are making headway but if you look at how recruiting went this winter, it’s hard to argue that the Pac-10 title doesn’t run through the Coliseum and the Men of Troy. They’re returning Booty, both tailbacks and Patrick Turner, who is a Dwayne Jarrett/Mike Williams clone.

I like the Pac-10, it intrigues me. But I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid. Not again. And it’s Nate Longshore’s fault.

Here’s a link to Maisel’s article if you care.

Today in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I happened across a column by Jim Moore, who inexplicably calls himself and his column the “Go 2 Guy.” Cheesy name aside, the column really disappointed me for any number of reasons not the first of which being that Moore’s column, whether he’d like to admit it or not, condones the felonious drug use and possession by two Gonzaga basketball.

According to Moore, when Josh Heytvelt, arguably Gonzaga’s best player and Theo Davis, didn’t turn their headlights on, the reason why a Spokane police officer stopped the Chevrolet Trail Blazer (the irony of the name of the vehicle they were in is striking) the two players were riding in, that was the worst decision they made that night.

Really, Jim? That was the worst decision they made that night. Are you sure it wasn’t the whole driving around with ‘shrooms in your car thing because that seems like an awfully bad decision to me.

Moore’s next genius dissection of this incident is the discovery by the police officer of aforementioned bag of ‘shrooms sticking out of Heytvelt’s gym bag. His analysis of this incident is so ungodly stupid, I can’t help but post it in its entirety.

“If I’m Heytvelt, as soon as I see blue lights in my rear-view mirror, the first thing I’m doing is “un-protruding” my mushrooms by stuffing them deep into my bag, underneath my sneakers and practice jersey and zipping the whole damn thing shut. That just seems like a Foreign-Substance Fundamental 101.”

There you go kids, if you’re riding around with mushrooms in your car, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Jim Moore gives you specific instructions on how to best hide your stash from the Po-Po.

And then there’s the kicker. An argument that I’ve heard one hundred times before from parents who freely used drugs themselves. And again, I’m going to have to quote Moore directly because I can’ t put it any better than he did.

“Yes, here in Washington those magic mushrooms are felonious goods, and I know I’m missing the point, that kids shouldn’t do drugs, period, particularly when they’re part of a team. It’s a privilege, not a right, and so on. But kids do do drugs.”

Not all kids do drugs, Jim. I’m 23 years old and I’ve never used an illegal drug in my life. I know that there are young people who have and do use illegal drugs on a regular basis but that doesn’t make it ok or, in this case, legal. I remember reading a feature in SI a month or so ago about Alando Tucker, the all-world Wisconsin forward who is probably the best all-around player in college basketball, making a pact with his father not to use drugs or alcohol. That seems to be working out pretty well for him, don’t you think? And you can bet that if he was busted with a bag of ‘shrooms or brownies laced with ‘shrooms, the local papers would eat him alive. They wouldn’t smirk and make light of a situation that, had it not happened to two Gonzaga basketball players likely would have resulted in jail time.

And then there’s the rub.

I’m not going to condone Heytvelt’s and Davis’ actions, but at the same time, haven’t they been punished enough? Reinstate Heytvelt in time for Saturday’s game against eighth-ranked Memphis and allow Davis to be a member of the team again.

Too often, society is willing to overlook the faults and slip-ups of the talented. And this is no exception. Who cares if you admittedly stole laptops from dorm rooms (UConn’s Marcus Williams) or were riding around in your Trail Blazer with a bag full of ‘shrooms if you can help us WIN?

Well done, Jim Moore.

15, 373 points. 7,095 assists. 1,428 steals. All of Tim Hardaway’s statistics wiped away by four words:

“I hate gay people.”

It seems like every newspaper, sports talk radio show and sports blog has picked up on the story that I first heard about while laying in bed last night after watching ‘Lost.’ My stomach churned as I listened to Hardaway tell Miami Herald columnist and sometimes-ESPN talking head Dan LeBatard describe his stance on homosexuality in NBA locker rooms. In the wake of former NBA center John Amaechi coming out of the closet, it seems that anyone who ever wore an NBA jersey has been asked how they’d feel if one of their teammates was gay. The responses have ranged from surprisingly refreshing (Charles Barkley) to awkward and quasi-homophobic (LeBron James) to ignorant and flat-out homophobic (Shavlik Randolph) to revolting and bigoted (Hardaway).

I certainly don’t think that Hardaway’s comments are in anyway indicative of the way the majority of NBA players, or for that matter the majority of Americans, feel about homosexuals in any workplace.

All Hardaway did when he told LeBatard that homosexuals had no place in this country was diminish what was an otherwise respectable NBA career. Was Hardaway one of the greatest point guards ever to play the game? Not by a longshot. However from this point forward, when someone mentions the name “Tim Hardaway,” you won’t think of a no-look pass or his patented cross-over, you’ll think of the moment when Dan LeBatard challenged Hardaway’s comments as “flatly homophobic” and bigoted and Hardaway branded himself forever as a bigot.

Here’s a link to a transcript of the conversation posted by the Miami Herald.

The Dallas Morning-News is reporting that the NCAA has scrapped the rules aimed at making college football games shorter.

I think this is definitely the right move for college football. The clock rules may have made the games shorter (on the average about 15 minutes) but to say that they reduced the quality of the game would be an understatement. The rules were universally panned by players and coaches and even sparked a website. You know you’re hated when you have your own hate-site (just ask Ron Zook)

There are some other rule changes that I’m a little apathetic about..

• Timeouts will be 30 seconds instead of 65 seconds
• The play clock will be just 15 seconds after a TV timeout
• Kickoffs will kicked from the 30 instead of the 35 in an attempt to reduce kickoffs

I’ve blasted the NCAA before and rightfully so but I think they finally made the right move on SOMETHING.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said he doesn’t think people who drive hours to watch a football game care about how long the game runs, he told the Morning-News, “I don’t know if they come to see a quick game, a game to played in three hours,” he said.

I firmly believe that football fans, either in the stands or watching at home, care if the game runs long or not. But the networks do care. They have a budgeted time slot that they give a game and they want the game to be over in that allotted time. That’s why this decision was made in the first place and I wish the NCAA would have acknowledged that from the start and not front like they’re taking up the sword and trying to protect the integrity of the game.

Here’s a link to the Morning-News article.

Sometimes I’m willing to give players the benefit of the doubt when it comes to news conferences. I’ve read pieces in the New York Post, Daily News and the Times about Tiki Barber’s formal introduction to the world as NBC’s newest “Today” show correspondent as well as an analyst on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. In that news conference, judging by all the stories I’ve read, Barber used his TV debut as an the opportunity to (once again) blast Giants coach Tom Coughlin.

Now what I don’t know is whether or not, Barber was provoked to do so by questions from the media. But let’s assume for a second that he wasn’t. We can do so because Barber’s mouth has allowed us to do. Let’s assume that in talking about making the transition from the backfield to 30 Rock, he decided to elaborate on why he decided to leave football following what were arguably the best 3 seasons of his career and just couldn’t help himself.

Say what you want about Terrell Owens, and as an unashamed Eagles fan I often do, but T.O. has never publicly ripped a coach the way Barber has on more than one occasion. So why does Barber get a pass? Why isn’t Tiki Barber the egomaniac that T.O. is branded of being, and probably is?

In the press conference, Barber talked about Coughlin’s rules and how physically demanding his practices were. Barber was quoted by New York Newsday as saying:

“I never got breaks, never got to just relax, and it took a toll on me. He pushed me in this direction. He kind of forced me to start thinking about what I wanted to do next and I went after it. “There would be days where I couldn’t move on Wednesday and he’d get mad at me for going half-speed. I told him, ‘Coach, I can’t do it. I’m going to be out here, I’m never going to miss a practice. But I can’t give you what you want all the time.’”

In reviewing his statistics, you can’t question Barber’s game but after reviewing Barber’s comments, you almost have to question his heart and his toughness.

The truth of the matter is that the Giants, as crazy as this sounds, will probably be better off without Barber. They had to get Tiki his touches and that probably came at the cost of seeing Eli Manning develop the way other QBs of his draft class have developed (Philip Rivers, Ben Rothlisberger).

The truth of the matter is that the Giants will miss Tiki Barber’s production but they won’t miss his divisive off-the-field sniping of his own head coach. Barber may have been a great player but he was far from a great leader.

Barber, truthfully, is lucky to have gotten out when he did. If the Giants had to go through another season of dysfunction with Eli Manning under-producing and Barber complaining about feeling ‘”forgotten” in the Giants offense, his “good guy” image would have been severely damaged.

And while we’re on the topic, what is Tiki Barber’s legacy? When he announced his retirement at 31, he was wrongly criticized for being a quitter. But don’t get it twisted, Tiki Barber is no Barry Sanders. A recent ESPN poll asking whether or not Tiki Barber was a Hall of Famer came back a land slide, over 80 percent of those polls felt Barber was not worthy of enshrinement. And I would tend to agree with them.

As an NFL anaylst, Barber can publicly blast Coughlin until he’s blue in the face, and he probably will, but the timing of this smacks of sour grapes.

When I read what Barber had to say about Coughlin, for the 75th time, I just couldn’t help but wonder why T.O. is toxic and Tiki Barber isn’t?

Yesterday an article ran in the Albany Times-Union, a paper I admittedly only read because I have family in that area, and I happened, by chance, across a story about eighth-grader Brian Walsh who is readying himself to forfeit his chance at a state title because he may have to wrestle a girl.

He won’t wrestle a girl for a number of reasons.
1) The school he attends, Loudonville Christian, passsed, at the behest of his parents, a policy banning boys from wrestling girls.

2) He think it’s disrespectful to women. (I mean who wants to be treated as equals anyway, right?)

3)It’s described by his father as a “no-win” situation. His father claims that if he wins, he’s just beating up on a girl but if he loses then he lost to a girl.

4) HE’S AFRAID OF GETTING BEAT BY A GIRL!

I think what’s most disgraceful here is the extent to which this kid has been brainwashed to think that what he’s doing is morally just. And he and his parents are wrong.

If Walsh (and his parents) want to make this choice for their son, then that’s fine. But what message does this send this kid? By wanting to maintain a “respect for women,” Walsh’s parents are instilling in him a belief that men are superior to women. Walsh’s parents aren’t allowing him to explore the possibility that women are just as capable of doing anything that men can do. Wouldn’t he be better served by the opportunity to learn, at a young age, that women are his equals?

The most telling quote of the entire piece was when Walsh said “It’s tough, you know,” Walsh said earlier this week, “making it to the finals and then walking away. I’ve kind of struggled with it. But whatever happens, happens. I support the decision.”

“I support the decision.” Should he be supporting his own decision? No, he should be making it. Does this sound like a kid who really wants to do this? Don’t you think, if really given the choice, he wouldn’t prefer to compete? Of course he would, that’s why people play sports at any level. You play to compete.

And what about the girl? Do you think her feelings are going to be hurt if she loses? I highly doubt it. When I think about some of the finer female athletes that I’ve known in my life, if she’s anything like them, her victory would feel much less hollow if she won the state title because no one wanted to wrestle her because she was a girl.

The sad thing is that at the end of the day, both of these kids are being denied the chance to compete and participate in a sport because the adults around them are behaving poorly.

In this day and age, it’s absolutely nuts that people choose to bring their religious beliefs into arguments that otherwise have nothing to do with religion.

“It’s just not what we feel honors the lord Jesus Christ,” Camilleri, the school’s AD, said Monday. “This is the correct position, the godly position for us at Loudonville Christian to take. … We’re here to please the Lord, not to please man.”

Godly position? This is 8th grade wrestling!

Here’s the link to the article in the Albany Times-Union. There’s an accompanying column by Brian Ettkin.