* Forbes magazine recently released its ranking of the top 30 sports franchises in the world. The Glazers were the only family with more than one team: Manchester United, valued at $2.8 billion, was third, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, at $1.07 billion, was 30th. For the record, the Glazers bought the Bucs 19 years ago for $192 million.
* These are heady days for SEC football. Its teams have won seven out of the last eight national championships. It leads all conferences in attendance. Next month it kicks off the SEC Network in partnership with ESPN.
As a result, this year’s pre-season media gathering was (a day) longer and (a week) earlier. Some of the media called it a form of “chutzpah.” SEC Commissioner Michael Slive, didn’t disagree and then paraphrased Muhammad Ali. “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
Slive, not unlike Ali, doesn’t get it. If you can back it up, rather than letting your accomplishments speak for themselves, it is bragging. And if you can’t back it up, it’s, well, lying. Perhaps the off-putting “swagger” we’re all too used to seeing on the football field has now strutted its way into the commissioner’s office.
Maybe a Spanish proverb would be more appropriate: “Tell me what you brag about, and I’ll tell you what you lack.”