Hooray! Bad Sportsmanship!

When Mark Richt of Georgia sent his entire team into the endzone against Florida to “celebrate” a touchdown, I was reminded of why I never shed a tear for coaches who get fired in college sports.

That was reinforced tenfold when on Monday and Tuesday, almost every other college coach had Richt’s back when asked about it in their respective press conferences.

Talk about a “Band of Brothers” in the coaching fraternity.

What Richt did was so incredibly wrong, I remain firm in thinking that he deserved a one game suspension for it. In a world of increasing athlete jackassery in the name of showing up your opponent, we can only count on coaches as the last line of defense against this crap.

When one actually ORDERS IT of his players, you pretty much throw up your hands in surrender.

What if Richt’s motivational mandate had sparked a repeat of the brawl that ended the Miami vs. Florida International game last year?

“But it didn’t…” you say.

Irrelevant, I counter. Like shooting a gun in the air in a crowd and missing everybody. That’s called stupid luck. It’s not okay.

Luckily, I suspect Richt’s idiotic move, will eventually come back to bite him on the ass. Some clown player of his, will get a 15 yard penalty for celebrating when his team CAN LEAST AFFORD IT and they will lose.

Then I will laugh.

A hearty, deep, you-had-it-coming kind of laugh.

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Well, since he can’t get any news coverage, looks like John Edwards is getting desperate. His latest set of proposals, if elected president, would be “free everything”, supported by higher taxes.

Central to it all, “College for Everyone.” Which is positively insane. College is most specifically NOT for everybody! College is a waste of time for people who are going to be skilled laborers, tradesmen, or the like. College is only for people with a DESIRE for it. Because if you just “give” college to people who don’t really want it that badly, they will almost certainly flunk out. Duh.

Why didn’t he also call for government funded $500 haircuts for everybody? What a douchebag. Keep talking, hair pony. You’re only killing your parties chances.

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I’ve been checkin in on the new “Mike Tirico Show” on ESPN Radio. (Note: Yes, I DO listen to other sports radio shows. ALL THE TIME! In many ways, I am just like you when I am not on the air. I consume the “product” of sports radio just as voraciously. I try not to steal any ideas blatantly, but I do take note of show elements well done, and try to incorporate similar elements into my show. But I digress…).

The show is very young, so you gotta give it time to develop. So far, I notice a few things. It’s very nice. It’s very clean. It’s very sincere. It’s very serious.

In other words, it’s like what would happen if you give a really good play-by-play man from television a sports radio show.

And I like Tirico’s work on TV. I think he’s a very well prepared, skilled, play-by-play voice on both football and golf.

But so far, the radio show has absolutely no sense of humor. It does not seem to do more than just tiptoe into any “negative” territory. And it treats almost all subjects with a life and death seriousness that simply isn’t required.

Good sports radio should be fun, subversive at times to the status quo, unafraid to laugh at itself and others. It also needs chemistry, which the Tirico show lacks because Mike does it from his home in Michigan (good for him, BTW, I am jealous) and his co-hosts are all over the place. Sometimes it’s Van Pelt in Bristol. Other days it’s Michelle Tafoya from her home city in Minnesota.

Time will tell. I’m not sure anybody could do a really kick ass sports radio show under the ESPN umbrella. I know I would be constantly looking over my shoulder, and in my “In-Box” for an email from somebody saying I simply can’t “say that.”

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George Will is brilliant. His logical reasoning is virtually airtight. If you believe in such crap as the Kyoto Protocol or “Carbon Taxes” you must read this. Chances are, if you believe in such things, you won’t understand some of the words. Look ‘em up if you have to. The notion as Will puts it of a “Global Climate Knob” that we can twist, is a perfect illustration of Al Gore’s folly.

The fact that nobody in the Global Warming camp will admit that SOME benefits will come with warming, proves their single minded obsession. Science is not obsessive or morally preachy. Al Gore and his kind are.

The environment, global temperatures, weather, climate and everything else is extremely complex. To think that a failed presidential nominee could sum it all up neatly in a power point slide show is absurd. To think that he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for it even more so.

Everything has a cost people. The costs of moving the needle a few degrees (the most optimistic estimates of actually achieving Kyoto targets not currently being grazed) would crush developing nations and their economies.

Global Warming zealots will not debate you on the facts. They will instead claim a moral high ground, or say that doing “nothing” will cost more in the long run, and then throw out ludicrous doomsday scenarios.

If in 2030 we are still driving gasoline powered cars, I’d be shocked. All the while, climate doomsayers and their bogeymen keep falling. Like the shrinking ozone layer. Or the quietest hurricane season in decades.

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Instead of players introducing their teammates as is currently the vogue on ESPN broadcast football games – and I like it, don’t get me wrong – how about something to spice it up every now and then. I was sorta hoping the Broncos would have injured RB Travis Henry introduce his kids, and baby mommas. All nine of each! Then he could give us footnotes on the how and where he conceived them all. Tell me that wouldn’t be a “Save Until I Delete” item on your TiVO?

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AND NOW YOUR PIC O' THE DAY!!

Um. Little too phallic lookin' Carson.