Incredibly Novel Concetps, Vol. VII
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by user J Cunningham
I’ll be typing this edition of Incredibly Novel Concepts on the down-low, because I don’t want to risk some hotshot NCAA big wig catching me and revoking my already paltry media credentials.
Then again, it could be worse: I could be a high school athletic director who can’t even spell my own pitcher’s name on the high school regional baseball tournament program.
Oh well … light on humor this week, so on with Round Seven of …
… INCREDIBLY NOVEL CONCEPTS!!!
INC #1: Brian Bennett, a writer from The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., was kicked out of the NCAA baseball tournament game between Louisville and Oklahoma State on Sunday because he was updating a live blog of the contest.
Apparently, maintaining live blogs of NCAA sporting events violates NCAA rules. And we know how much sense NCAA rules make.
As little sense as the rule makes, allow me to try and explain it: according to the NCAA’s ever-fluid sense of “logic,” a live blog is equitable to a live broadcast of that event. And since the NCAA has a contract with ESPN to broadcast the NCAA baseball tournament, the governing body sees live blogging as a violation of that contract and, by extension, the “no blogging” rule.
First of all, blogging is the future of print media. Just about every medium- to large-sized newspaper has at least one sports blog these days … and many of them are updated on-the-fly during athletic events.
So by the letter of this law, Rich Radford’s halftime blog updates from Old Dominion basketball games for The Virginian-Pilot could be in violation.
Secondly, how does a live blog infringe on the broadcast … in this case, ESPN’s? Bennett wasn’t infringing on ESPN’s broadcast, but the NCAA was infringing on Bennett’s First Amendment rights … not to mention his ability to do his job.
If I’m a higher-up at The Courier-Journal, I’m rounding up the lawyers and considering a lawsuit. If I’m someone in the NCAA offices with a lick of common sense, I’m suggesting a revisitation of this pointless, asinine and moronic rule.
INC #2: A stripper has complained to police that Detroit Lions defensive tackle Shaun Rogers groped her. Which leads me to one overriding thought:
She’s a stripper!!! If she has a problem with men going to her place of work and “inappropriately” touching her, then find another line of work!!!
Forget for a minute how this falls into commissioner Roger Goodell’s new, tougher conduct policy, or the potential issue of sexual harassment and all that baggage. This woman makes her living by dancing in front of men and taking off her clothes. As far as I’m concerned, once you get yourself a job in which you use your body and sex appeal to make money, you lose the right to gripe about groping.
Now, if Rogers tried to force himself onto the woman, that’s different. But if all he did was cop a feel, grab and squeeze, the woman needs to shut up. The nature of her job invites such actions.
If I were a woman, and I got a job as a waitress at Hooters, it would make no sense for me to get upset at someone for paying excessive attention to, or grabbing, by breasts. Because it’s freakin’ Hooters, and that’s the whole point of the place!
If this woman sees fit to whine about Rogers grabbing himself a piece of her flesh, maybe she needs to look for another, less sexual job.
INC #3: To anyone calling Lewis Hamilton’s landmark Formula One win Sunday a “Jackie Robinson” moment, just chill. The comparison holds absolutely no water.
I’m fairly sure Hamilton never faced the racial persecution and prejudice Robinson did. Just because he’s the first black driver to compete and win on the F1 circuit doesn’t mean he’s necessarily breaking a barrier and becoming a champion for racial equality.
It just means he’s damn good. The fact that he’s black is really inconsequential to me.
I like the Hamilton story. He’s young, talented and apparently quite charismatic, and his victory celebration is the most emotion I’ve seen in Formula One for years now. The series needs more of this if American motorsports fans are to tune in … notice how much attention the Dan Wheldon-Danica Patrick feud brought the IndyCar Series last week before the IRL stupidly stomped it into the ground.
F1 is the most popular motorsport worldwide, but it’s nearly irrelevant in the states – then again, most everything not NASCAR is irrelevant here in America. And that’s a shame, because as great as NASCAR is, there’s a lot of great motorsport in the world, and for the first time in a long while, I can say F1 has some of it too.
Having a successful American driver in the series would help on this side of the Atlantic, but Hamilton – and the fact that Michael Shumacher isn’t winning every week anymore – will most certainly help.
INC #4: Everyone back off LeBron James.
The guy’s just 22 years old, in only his fourth year in the NBA. He’s talented, charismatic, doesn’t get into trouble, and he’s looking to be the kind of star the NBA can ride for years to come.
So I don’t want to hear the constant criticism and flip-flopping on the part of the national media. It’s sickening to hear everyone bash him one night for something he did on the court, only to turn around the next night and anoint him as the next Greatest NBA Player Ever ™.
Just back off. He’s not the next Michael Jordan. There never will be a next Michael Jordan, nor will there be a next Magic Johnson, or a next Larry Bird, or a next Oscar Robinson, or any of that. Just let LeBron James be LeBron James.
And let him grow into the champion we all know he’s going to be. He made it to the NBA Finals in his fourth year with a negligible supporting vast … as far as I’m concerned, that’s the most impressive thing I’ve seen in the NBA since Jordan battled the flu to put away the Utah Jazz.
Age – and better players around him – will give LeBron a title, maybe more than one. Cleveland being down 2-0 to San Antonio isn’t LeBron’s fault; it’s just a matter of the Spurs being a better team.
INC #5: Memo to ESPN: shut up about The Sopranos already.
I realize it’s one of the most popular, most influential TV shows of the decade – even if it never really impressed me. I realize it has a wide reach and all that, but do you really have to discuss the series finale? At length, and on just about every radio and television program?
I thought you were all about sports. Last I checked, Sopranos had nothing to do with sports.
I want mobsters, I’ll watch Godfather or Goodfellas. I want sports, I turn to ESPN. Not the other way around.
