* This might sound heretical for someone who regularly includes a Sports Shorts column item, but I didn’t see the Super Bowl. Again.
Unless the Bucs are playing in it or this city is hosting it, a Super Bowl is just not a must-see game for me. It’s football in February–or two weeks before pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training. Football, candidly, had already peaked with Plant, Armwood and Alabama winning championships. And how does a team with seven losses get to play for any kind of championship? Besides, the Super Bowl is show biz before its football. It was Eli Manning and Tom Brady, but it was more about an ad hoc holiday, Madonna, a “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” ad and, as it turned out, some cheesy performer who should have been M.I.A. But, yeah, glad to see former USF Bulls Jason Pierre-Paul and Jacquian Williams get Super Bowl rings.
* Some advice for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell who is considering dropping the Pro Bowl Game: Don’t consider it. Just do it. The game has devolved from meaningless, don’t-get-hurt exhibition to blatant sham. The only All Star-type game worth playing is Major League Baseball’s.
* The Rays have a well-earned reputation for doing more–much more–with less than their deep-pocketed competition. They are also known as a team of good guys who stay out of the non-sports headlines. When they had a couple of exceptions, notably Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes, they sent them packing. Now they have Luke Scott.
By all accounts the Rays new designated hitter is a solid, stand-up guy–but he also stands up for his right-wing politics and love of guns. His previous team, the Baltimore Orioles, had to distance themselves from some comments he once made about President Obama. To wit: that he “doesn’t represent America” and that his place of birth was, indeed, questionable. The Rays are obviously hoping his DH bat does all the talking. A lot of things have to break right for the Rays to contend again. What they don’t need is an internal distraction.
* For what it’s worth: On occasion, I find myself flipping on the TV to a basketball game that I have no interest in. For the brief time I look in, I root for the team with the fewest tattoos.
* I still think the fired ThunderBug got a raw deal. But I understand the need for Lightning officials to take some action. Still, Silly Stringing some guy with a Boston Bruins’ jersey at the Forum? Ever been around these people–the Boston (especially), Philly, New York, New Jersey types–at a Lightning home game? They give annoying a bad name.