Category: Sports

What we have long suspected is now officially confirmed. Turn off the ventilator. The NHL season is dead. Cause of death: terminal greed, arrogance and stupidity. And given what we know of hockey’s second-class status in this culture’s sports firmament, don’t look for a Lazarus-like comeback.

But we finally have an answer to “cost certainty”: Catastrophic.

Two years ago fitness guru Don Ardell finished out of the money behind Pam Iorio, Frank Sanchez, Bob Buckhorn and Charlie Miranda in Tampa’s mayoral race. Two Saturdays ago Ardell, 66, finished first in his age group (65-69) at the Bank of America Gasparilla Distance Classic 15k race.

In fact, his time (59:08) was good enough to have won the 50-54 age group as well. Overall, Ardell’s time was 95th best among the more than 4,000 entrants.

Say what you will about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – from super to stupor – their public relations remains consistent. It still stinks.

From the organization that extorted a stadium, recoiled at the prospect that it might have to ante up for some Super Bowl-celebration expenses and kissed off John Lynch like some stumble bum who had overstayed his welcome, we bring you the under-the-radar ticket hike.

The Bucs waited until late Friday of Super Bowl weekend to make a price-hike announcement. And just to make sure that the news stayed low profile, the Bucs’ PR flacks once again treated return calls as another media imposition.

Proving again that the National Football League is a market-economy anomaly, the Bucs raised their ticket prices ($2-$5 per) in the aftermath of their worst season (5-11) in a decade.

That’s what you do when you have too many fans on a waiting list to buy season tickets. That’s what you do because you can.

That’s how you do it because you are the Bucs.

By all the usual criteria, USF had a successful recruiting season — topped by Monticello Jefferson County quarterback Carlton Hill, who should be able to push for the starting job next year. He’s that good.

USF needed the solid recruiting class to bulk up for the Big East. Rivals.com has USF’s recruits ranked 50th in the country.

Put into context, this means that USF finished in the upper half of the Big East. It also says that the following schools are among those who finished behind USF for the class of ’05: Illinois, Northwestern, Washington State, TCU, Minnesota, Syracuse, Iowa State, Baylor, Utah, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Washington, Kentucky, Indiana and everyone in Conference USA.

Put into further – and much more relevant — context, it takes about three years to fully determine the success of a recruiting class. Injuries, legal problems, academic failings and unfulfilled potential – for whatever reason — are the variables.

For now, however, this bunch looks good on paper – and in the game films.

‘Twas the season.

In this case, the recruiting of blue-chip, high school football seniors. It all culminated on Feb. 2, which was the official signing date for the USCs and Oklahomas to restock, reload — and remind prospects how very valued they are.

Because football in Florida is a religion second only to Southern Baptist, this is an especially big deal around here. Did USF finally land a QB worthy of a school now in the BCS Big East Conference? Did the late-arriving Urban Meyer save the recruiting class at the University of Florida? Did Florida State finish strong again? How did Miami do? And the across-the-board answers were “yes,” “yes,” “yes” and “who cares?”

But back to the players, per se.

The top prospects are lavished with the sort of homage a young faculty recruit could only fantasize about. The circus-like atmosphere is also a reminder of why some players have an attitude before they ever step onto a university campus.

They’ve often been – sometimes since middle school — the beneficiaries of “student-athlete” double standards. The recruiting process only reinforces it – and then ratchets it up. Now they’re celebrities. And a much bigger stage beckons.

Charting and handicapping who is going where is now a formidable business, with a dozen or more research services in the mix. All giving national attention to the top players. ESPN is also on the case. Statewide sports cable shows add to the buzz. The local sportswriters speculate on a daily basis about where prized recruits may wind up.

Then there are the on-campus visits. Even though some of the worst excesses have presumably ended, let’s just say that universities still can roll out the sort of red carpet that impresses 18-year-old males.

And there are the high schools, themselves. If a “student-athlete” ran for 2,000 yards or threw 40 TD passes, he will likely merit a press conference. Those with lesser stats may warrant a media availability.

“Student-students” with perfect 1,600 scores on their SATs? Congratulations during home room announcements.

Maybe.

As Alabama’s Bear Bryant once quipped: “You can’t rally ’round the math department.”

Mayor Pam Iorio recently made a presentation that concerned young people – at a pivotal point in their lives. It had nothing to do with teenage curfews. Nor did it have anything to do with lobbying for state money for more juvenile detention facilities.

It had everything to do with saluting a group of youths on an incredible achievement. She was out at Armwood High School in Seffner to salute the nationally ranked Hawks on their back-to-back state football championships. It is unprecedented in Hillsborough County.

Two points.

First, these are kids who don’t require curfews – nor electronic monitoring devices. They are hard workers and they are winners – in the classroom and on the football field. They are black and they are white and they work as one.

And none of it happens by accident. Dedicated coaches can only do so much. Obviously, there is a lot of parental reinforcement. That’s often the key factor in who brings home a state championship trophy and who is fitted for a monitoring anklet.

The other point.

Isn’t it refreshing that these high school athletes, a number of whom live in the school’s satellite area in Tampa and commute to the suburbs — can transcend city-county limits to realize their potential? Hopefully, certain parochial politicians have noted it as well.

Barring some miraculous outbreak of good taste and civilized decorum, virtually nothing – from fines to taunting penalties – will alter the NFL’s joining the NBA in an ongoing dissent into hip-hop hell. There is no re-bottling the genie of boorish behavior.

The game is largely played by black athletes, very few of whom would be mistaken for the second coming of Gale Sayers or Julius Erving. They are the hip hop generation, and if you don’t like it, don’t watch. That’s why there’s tennis and golf and why there used to be hockey.

Ironically, for all the notoriety caused by Randy Moss’ latest episode, it is one of the more benign examples. The simulated “mooning” of Green Bay Packer fans, it turns out, was more turnabout than turn-off.

Apparently there’s a long-running, stupid tradition among some Packer drunks of “mooning” the opposing team bus after games. Moss responded in kind. Even Tony Dungy thought it was practically funny. As opposed to some of Moss’ other imbroglios over the years, this one wasn’t even illegal.

But if the NFL and its network co-conspirators really wanted to do, well, SOMETHING other than issue pro forma statements and levy fines to the obscenely compensated, here’s what they conceivably could do. Add this directive to the TV coverage guidelines: keep the cameras off show-boating individuals after a play has ended.

Go right to replay, put up a graphic or look for reaction shots in the stands. Do not, repeat DO NOT, linger on wide outs, running backs, defensive backs, defensive linemen, etc. who go into their individual, look-at-me, juvenile antics. If no one save enabling live partisans could get a look, there might, repeat MIGHT, be less incentive to do it.

As it is, tackles, incompletions, first downs, sacks, fumble recoveries and interceptions are all preludes to trip the light fantastic as only mugging athletes can. And that’s why touchdowns – events traditionally worth “celebrating” – seemingly require an upping of the ante, i.e., the (moon) shot heard ’round the sports world.

As to whether the networks, who pay outrageous sums to televise pro football, would want to make such a change, that’s a long shot. Likely a no shot. They like exploiting the trash-talking as if it were merely gamesmanship; they follow sophomoric, classless antics as if they were mere extensions of enthusiasm.

They think there’s not enough of us who know the difference

.They are probably right.

Another college football season has come and gone, which means another BCS controversy. It also means another round of stone-walling playoff talk by Division 1-A presidents who don’t want to appear crassly driven toward another big pay day at “student athletes'” expense.

As if.

Try this. Match up the top 4 teams on New Year’s. Seed them 1 through 4. That, for example, would have given you USC-Texas (or Utah) and Oklahoma-Auburn. The two winners meet the following week. Not perfect, just a lot better than the Anointment Bowl.

As for prolonging the season, it only adds a week. But to more than make up for time lost by “student-athletes,” the presidents can vote to do away with spring practice. They can also permit “student athletes” – especially in big revenue sports — to be part-time students during their season. They can also agree that member schools will no longer admit those who do not belong academically – or even socially — on a college campus and only make a travesty out of higher education while they prep for the pros.

And while we’re suggesting the improbable as well as the flat-out impossible, add this: Take the mega-revenue from the ultimate national championship game and spread it out over the NCAA member schools to be used for something other than sports.

For all the talk about too many bowl games involving too many mediocre teams, let’s remember the NFL counterpart. Teams are not required to win more games than they lose to make the playoffs. That the Bucs were still in the running until the next-to-last game is ample proof that parity is also a euphemism for mediocrity. At best.

A lot of understandable attention has been focused on USF’s (away) games next year with Penn State (Sept. 3) and Miami (Oct. 1). The Bulls will pick up handsome guarantees – and maybe more than that at struggling PSU. But no less important are lower profile (home) games with Florida A&M (Sept. 10) and the University of Central Florida (Sept. 17).

Average home attendance dipped below 20,000 this year, and it’s imperative that the Bulls reverse that trend. Winning, of course, will cure that. What else helps is bringing in natural rivals that should draw well. FAMU and UCF qualify.