* And speaking of soccer, per se. Just a suggestion from a quadrennial fan, mind you, but how about stopping the clock once in a while? Maybe not every time a player fakes an injury, but when, say, stretchers are brought out or a ball kicked out of play takes a circuitous route back to the field or there’s the melodramatic rendering of yellow and red cards or there’s a substitution.
And speaking of clocks, how about a big digital one that lets everyone know exactly how much time really remains? Even the broadcasters have to guess. Especially in “stoppage,” where time is always rounded up to the minute.
* And good point by World Cup commentator Jurgen Klinsmann, who noted that the U.S. will always have a governor on its soccer potential because America’s best athletes play other sports.
* The economics of professional sports are, of course, something out of a parallel universe. Anyone else think we could do without daily updates on the soap opera that is Bucs’ left tackle Donald Penn’s contract contretemps with the Bucs?
The sports-media drumbeat reminds us that Penn still won’t sign that one-year, restricted free agent tender of $3.168 million. Whatever eventually happens, Penn won’t be the highest-paid Buc nor the highest-paid tackle in the league. But it is another reminder, especially around here, that the worst recession in memory is reflected in the stands, not on the field.
* So how does ex-Tampa Bay Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk,13th in the history of the NHL in goals with 640, not get in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but Cammi Granato and Angela James do? Answer: Although Andreychuk had an NHL record 274 power-play goals and is the only 600-goal scorer not in the Hall, he wasn’t a “pioneer.” Maybe next year.
* It’s nice to see one of our own, in this case Plant High’s James Wilder Jr., accorded so many pre-season honors nationally. The two-way football star is the bluest of blue chip prospects, as is well documented. We now learn that ESPN will cover his announcement–later this summer–of where he will attend college live on its national network. The recognition is, of course, flattering and speaks to the talent of Wilder and the prestige of Plant.
But it also underscores something else. Increasingly, the high-profile marketing of sports at the university level–where athletes prep for the pros and can too easily develop a self-important, entitlement attitude–is now filtering down to the high schools. Not a good move when you’re trying to teach something other than football.
But it’s unlikely that the ESPN genie of over-exposure can be rebottled. Perhaps Plant can at least call a press conference for its Merit semi-finalists next year.