The Washington Post is reporting that Virginia Tech has elected to call off its spring football practice and annual spring game in the wake of yesterday’s massacre at the university.

The game was scheduled for Saturday.

For my blog on yesterday’s tragedy, visit loserwithsocks.wordpress.com

Quinn or Russell likely No. 1 QB in draft

Jim Thomas

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

.. wow, Jim. You really beat the world on that story.  Was the sports editor sleeping at his desk?

A very interesting AP article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Greg Oden’s dad told the Indianapolis Star that Oden was leaving Ohio State to enter the NBA draft (duh!) but today, the man who hopes to be Oden’s agent, Mike Conley, Sr. (father of Mike Conley, Jr — Oden’s teammate and best friends) said not so.

Here’s a quote from Conley that, to me, gives a little insight into what these kids go through and how poorly the adults around them behave.

“‘No. Definitely not. Not to say he’s not going to decide that – but, 100 percent, as of this moment, he hasn’t decided,’ Conley, father of Oden’s teammate Mike Conley Jr., told The Associated Press.“

It gets worse.

“‘The process for Greg Oden is, he’s going to talk to his mom today, he’s going to talk to me tomorrow and he’s going to talk to (Ohio State coach) Thad Matta on Monday,’ Conley Sr. said. ‘And after that, he’s going to decide what he’s going to do and when he’s going to report it.’”

I don’t care if Oden leaves, I think he had the game of his life against Florida and the market for him is higher than ever. You certainly can’t begrudge someone that amount of money, regardless of how old they are (or look). My problem is with the adults, I have no reason to believe that Greg Oden is sincere when he says that he loves college life and would like to stay at Ohio State. But we all know that’s not going to happen. The adults in his life, including the press, will tell him that he’d be stupid not to go and to get while the gettin’s good. If anyone cared about this kid’s well-being, and not their own, this decision would be Oden’s and his alone. But it’s not. And that’s a shame.

Michael Schennum/The Arizona Republic

He must be working realllllly hard. No, seriously. Go to a gym today and try to do tricep exercises like that with a towel on your head and do some substantial weight and see how long that towel stays on your head.

Notice how no one in the picture is looking at Leinart. Maybe Anquan Boldin is doing bicep curls with Neil Rackers out of frame.

Put the entire Northside of Chicago on Suicide Watch.. The comeback trail for once-dominated pitchers Kerry Wood and Mark Prior may have hit a dead end.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Mark Prior left a rehab start with shoulder discomfort and is expected to see an L.A.-based specialist today.

Meanwhile, Kerry Wood, once thought to be the redneck heir apparent to Roger Clemens is having shoulder pain again. The Sun-Times is reporting that Wood is expected to have his right shoulder re-examined by a Cincinnati surgeon. The article said Wood has not progressed the way some thought he would and even failed to earn a bullpen job this spring after shoulder pain limited him to just 5 one-inning appearances.

Cub fans have to be heartbroken by this news. I think everyone knew that these guys, who were once the best one-two combination in all of baseball, probably would never be as dominant as they once were but many were hoping against hope that they would be able to come on and be a part of a championship team.

I love NFL football as much as the next guy. I’m a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan and I’m pretty sure I’m going to die an Eagles fan. I’ve told friends that if I loved any girl half as much as I loved the green and black, then I’d marry her on the spot. But I REFUSE TO GET EXCITED ABOUT SCHEDULES!

If we’ve learned nothing from the NFL in recent years, it’s that anything can happen. The Saints went from one of the most pitiful franchises in the NFL post-Katrina and was one game away from the Super Bowl last year. Anything can happen. Any year could be the year for your team. And that’s what makes the NFL great. So how do you expect me to be able to look at a team’s schedule in APRIL and get excited about, let alone consume hours worth of meaningless speculation about said schedule? Enough is enough.

And then there’s this today in the Philadelphia Daily News, where Hall of Fame coach Don Shula is flabbergasted by “how fans eat up NFL news.” But Don, I don’t need a two-hour special with pyrotechnics and juggling gophers to announce the schedule.  In fact, I’m perfectly with happy to go to the team’s website say in AUGUST and check out who my teams playing in ‘07. I don’t need that information in April. I just don’t.

We love the NFL, don’t make us start hating it.

In her 2nd column today, new Worldwide Leader ombudsman Le Anne Schrieber (at least I think she’s a woman, take a look at the picture, it’s a little iffy) blasts weasel-faced radio personality Colin Cowherd for his part in flooding the sports blog, thebiglead.com, with so much traffic that it shut the site down for 48 hours. Just a little of Cowherd’s idiocy:

“‘We shut it down in 90 seconds,’ Cowherd boasted on air. ‘We don’t even know thebiglead.” After a bit more gloating, he said ‘We apologize — but just don’t screw with us.’ Then he asked his listeners to ‘knock it out again, just for fun.’ The attack launched over the airwaves by Cowherd kept thebiglead.com shut down for more than 48 hours.”

In the column, Schreiber agrees with those who wrote her calling Cowherd’s actions, “immature, irresponsible, arrogant, malicious, destructive and dumb.”

In response to the incident, the Worldwide Leader has adapted a “zero tolerance policy” to similar incidents.

There are a couple things worth noting when reading this column. The first of which is that does anyone really think that anyone at the Worldwide Leader did anything but smirk when Cowherd urged his listeners to shut down the blog, which had been critical of the network on several occasions before (I can’t imagine why — it’s not like ESPN is the most self promotional network of any kind on the planet … oh, wait).

I appreciate Schreiber calling Cowherd onto the carpet for acting like a child, which he does on an almost daily basis but I’m not sure this is anything other than posturing and trying to look offended about an incident that you know the suits at the Worldwide Leader are high-fiving over.

The Worldwide Leader.com’s Todd McShay is reporting that USC wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett had a less than spectacular outing at USC’s pro day last week.

McShay said the 6′4″ Jarrett ran a 4.61 and 4.66 in his two 40 attempts. The same range as — guess who — former USC phenom and current, until the Lions can cut him, Detroit Lions wide receiver Mike Williams.

The comparisons between Jarrett and Williams will be drawn for any number of reasons. They’re both roughly the same size, they both went to Southern Cal and they both, at certain points during their career, looked like can’t-miss NFL prospects.

But to me, there’s one major difference between where Jarrett is going into April’s draft and where Williams was before the ‘05 draft, when the Lions inexplicably took him with the 10th pick in the first round — Jarrett played last year and Williams sat out the season prior to the 2005 draft because he was declared ineligible by the NCAA after his challenge of the NFL’s age policy failed.

I watched USC on a handful of occasions last year and while his 40 time may have been less than, a lot less than impressive. I still think Jarrett’s an absolute beast and will help whatever team takes him in April. Will he be an elite receiver? Probably not. But he will be a quality posession receiver and dangerous in the slot.

Here’s where various NFL draft experts think Jarrett will come off the board on the 28th:

Pat Kirwan - NFL.com - 19th pick - Tennessee Titans

NFLdraftcountdown.com - 30th pick - San Diego Chargers

Mel Kiper - ESPN - 11th pick - San Fransisco 49ers

Todd McShay - NFL.com - 23rd pick - Kansas City Chiefs

Don Banks - SI.com - 19th pick - Tennessee Titans

Consensus Draft Services - 23rd pick - Kansas City Chiefs

Draftking.com - 19th pick - Tennesee Tians