So this weekend’s AFC and NFC championship games feature four teams with quarterbacks obtained in two ways. The Titans and the Eagles drafted a stud quarterback high in the NFL draft when they took Steve McNair No. 3 and Donovan McNabb No. 2 overall. The Raiders and the Bucs have seasoned veteran quarterbacks who fought their wars with other teams in Rich Gannon (Vikings, Redskins, Chiefs) and Brad Johnson (Vikings, Redskins).
It can’t really be as hard as the Bears make it seem, can it?
SAY IT AIN’T SO: Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and his second wife were granted a divorce and it’s safe to say no one saw this coming. Monica Turner accused the boxer of adultery and will now get $6.5 million of Tyson’s future boxing earnings. Hard to tell what ultimately tipped Turner off? Tyson probably didn’t help himself when he told a female TV reporter, “I normally don’t do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them. So you shouldn’t talk anymore … Unless you want to, you know.”
HORSE’S ASS: What went through 56-year-old Raymond Everest’s mind when the British soccer fan attacked a police horse is anyone’s guess. After Everest’s team lost 2-1, a closed-circuit camera caught him kung-fu kicking a retreating police horse in the butt, then laughing about it. Now he can giggle his way through a 5-year jail sentence as Britain’s oldest convicted soccer hooligan. A better punishment: Let the horse kick back.
THOSE CRAZY KIDS: In response to complaints from some players over recent substitutions, 60-year-old Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said if the players were out to get him, “I’m not going down easy.” When asked about Sloan’s comments,
39-year-old Karl Malone said, “I’m not going down that road again.” Old guys haven’t been this angry since Denny’s changed its menu.
THE RIFLEMAN: The Indiana Pacers hired former NBA player Chuck Person as a scout. Person immediately complained about not getting the ball enough.
CAN YOU SPARE A PUCK? When the last-place Buffalo Sabres became the second NHL team in a week to file for bankruptcy protection, no doubt many fans across the country immediately wondered, “Buffalo’s team is in the NHL? Who knew?”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said bankruptcy is a step toward resolving the financial problems that so on and so forth and blah, blah, blah, blah. Bankruptcy is not good.
Here’s the bigger picture: the Sabres and the first-place Ottawa Senators are both in deep pudding and they may not be the last NHL teams to face trouble. Maybe the entire league was better off when there were six teams, no teal and beers under $9. You decide.
ENOUGH ALREADY: LeBron James keeps the car. Next . . .
OLD FRIENDS: Former All-Star shortstop Garry Templeton now manages the Gary RailCats of the independent Northern League, the fresh breeze of a league that brought us the first female player, one of Darryl Strawberry’s comebacks, and safe harbor for one-time Philly holdout J.D. Drew. As a player, Templeton was traded to San Diego for future Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith after he flipped off fans in the stands back before that was less than shocking. They’ll have to have a RailCats foam finger day.
THE OTHER JIM MILLER: Remember Jim Miller, the director of business operations of the Chicago Bears (1999-2002)? He was named athletic director of the University of New Orleans, where there is no football team. Should be a seamless transition.
