Looking beyond football
By: Jonathan Miller
Issue date: 9/28/09 Section: Sports
As one of the wackiest and most thoroughly disappointing weeks of college football is drawing to an interminable end, a little birdie in my ear is superfluously reminding me that there are sports other than college football in America, so I suppose it's my journalistic duty to touch on a few of them, so here's my best effort.
In baseball: The Yankees look poised to get railed out of the playoffs in the divisional series again and the Cubs are currently eighth in the NL Wildcard race. All seems right in the big leagues.
In basketball: Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has made an offer to purchase the New Jersey Nets from current owner Bruce Ratner. Cleveland fans, say goodbye to King James. Nets fans, say hello to Brooklyn.
In hockey: Wayne Gretzky removed himself as the head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, joining Isiah Thomas in the "I was a great player but I singlehandedly drove this franchise into the ground" club. Maybe the great one can follow in Thomas' footsteps by trying to revive his career at some juggernaut mid-major college like Florida International, but I'm not sure the Panthers have a hockey program.
In the NFL: Former Giants' star wide receiver Plaxico Burress began serving a two-year jail sentence for accidentally shooting himself in the leg while at a New York night club. Isn't that a harsher sentence than Michael Vick received? Wasn't Ray Lewis once accused of killing a man?! Just more proof that it doesn't pay to catch the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl.
In MMA: Quinton Jackson posted on his official blog that he was "done fighting" after his feud with UFC owner Dana White apparently came to a head. While we should all be absolutely thrilled Jackson has taken the role of B.A. Baracus in the new A-Team movie, I pity the fool who makes Dana White angry. Just look at what it's done to poor Tito.
And finally, NCAA football: I'm so confused by the college football landscape this weekend that I'm not sure where to begin, so I'm going to go with my gut and start with an raucous, resounding and much deserved OVERRATED chant for Ole Miss quarterback Jevon Snead. Snead went 7 of 21 for 107 yards in the Rebels' 16-10 loss to South Carolina Thursday night. Wasn't this guy considered a "Heisman" candidate a few weeks ago? He looks a lot like Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen did a few years ago: lost. No one really thought Mississippi deserved that number four ranking that they did exactly zilch to deserve, did they? Even UM head ball coach Houston Nutt said they were probably a bit overrated. "A bit" overrated Coach Nutt? Beating the likes of Memphis and Southeast Louisiana shouldn't warrant a ranking in the Top 25, much less the Top 10. Which is ironically a perfect segue into my next point.
In baseball: The Yankees look poised to get railed out of the playoffs in the divisional series again and the Cubs are currently eighth in the NL Wildcard race. All seems right in the big leagues.
In basketball: Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has made an offer to purchase the New Jersey Nets from current owner Bruce Ratner. Cleveland fans, say goodbye to King James. Nets fans, say hello to Brooklyn.
In hockey: Wayne Gretzky removed himself as the head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, joining Isiah Thomas in the "I was a great player but I singlehandedly drove this franchise into the ground" club. Maybe the great one can follow in Thomas' footsteps by trying to revive his career at some juggernaut mid-major college like Florida International, but I'm not sure the Panthers have a hockey program.
In the NFL: Former Giants' star wide receiver Plaxico Burress began serving a two-year jail sentence for accidentally shooting himself in the leg while at a New York night club. Isn't that a harsher sentence than Michael Vick received? Wasn't Ray Lewis once accused of killing a man?! Just more proof that it doesn't pay to catch the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl.
In MMA: Quinton Jackson posted on his official blog that he was "done fighting" after his feud with UFC owner Dana White apparently came to a head. While we should all be absolutely thrilled Jackson has taken the role of B.A. Baracus in the new A-Team movie, I pity the fool who makes Dana White angry. Just look at what it's done to poor Tito.
And finally, NCAA football: I'm so confused by the college football landscape this weekend that I'm not sure where to begin, so I'm going to go with my gut and start with an raucous, resounding and much deserved OVERRATED chant for Ole Miss quarterback Jevon Snead. Snead went 7 of 21 for 107 yards in the Rebels' 16-10 loss to South Carolina Thursday night. Wasn't this guy considered a "Heisman" candidate a few weeks ago? He looks a lot like Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen did a few years ago: lost. No one really thought Mississippi deserved that number four ranking that they did exactly zilch to deserve, did they? Even UM head ball coach Houston Nutt said they were probably a bit overrated. "A bit" overrated Coach Nutt? Beating the likes of Memphis and Southeast Louisiana shouldn't warrant a ranking in the Top 25, much less the Top 10. Which is ironically a perfect segue into my next point.