Hawkeye football announcer Ed Podolak likes Budweiser and, er, the inside of ladies' shirts. As you can see above, there's now photographic proof thanks to some Iowa State fan who took the above photo and a couple others and posted them to the Internet.
"[Maualuga is] my first-round pick for 'offensive' player of the year" and his dance behind Andrews "another example of a narcissistic, high-profile athlete believing that any behavior, no matter how inappropriate, is acceptable because of his status. For those who would laugh off, celebrate or enable this behavior, think twice. Ms. Andrews could be your sister, daughter or wife."
Since this is a serious matter, I'm not going to make the seemingly requisite "Erin Andrews as my wife" blogger joke. You know how I know it's serious? Rey even apologized (Go on. Kiss it.) according to a statement from USC.
"The situation was addressed immediately," the statement said. "Rey both e-mailed and spoke to Erin and apologized to her. He realized he made a mistake and used poor judgment. He deeply regrets his actions."
I see the inherent sexism that could be pulled out of this little stunt, but I also kind of tend to think that Andrews would (and probably did) laugh this whole thing off. That being said, it's still pretty awkward anytime a football player pulls off a sexist-related act on the field towards a female reporter, so, yeah, this is probably how it should have worked out.
The obvious joke from day one was that super-recruit Robert Marve might as well have pulled a Joe Theisman (sorry, ma- rhymes with "Heisman" or "Thighs Man" now) and switched over the "r" and "v" in his last name- couldn't hurt amongst the Peter Kings of the world. From the looks of things so far, however, he's already performing at a Favre-like level when it comes to off-season drama.
First came the last-second signing day switcheroo where the Alabama native spurned the Crimson Tide for the Hurricanes. And two years later, with the departure of OC Patrick Nix and the promotion of Jacory Harris to 2009's clear cut starter at QB, Marve has sought a transfer from the U. But Randy Shannon isn't making it easy- according to Marve's father at the outset, Shannon put an embargo on all other SEC and ACC programs as well as any other in-state school (27 in all). Which would be pretty crappy enough, but in a clarification as to why Pa Marve was so ticked off, as it turns out, he has recently been dealing with prostate cancer as well as the separation from his wife.
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.
Texas has just emerged victorious in a tensely fought Fiesta Bowl, 24-21. The Longhorns came back from a 21-17 last-minute deficit and scored a touchdown with just 16 seconds left, narrowly escaping defeat against much-doubted Ohio State. During the award ceremony, Texas coach Mack Brown had the following to say:
"I wasn't sure before, right now, in Friday morning I'm going to vote Texas No. 1 because I think this is the best team in the country"
No offense, Mack, but you barely got by Ohio State. Its a nice gesture to your team but its a little unfair to Oklahoma and Florida with the BCS Championship game yet unplayed. Amusingly, Brown will be bucking the Coaches Poll's agreement with the BCS to vote the BCS game winner at No. 1. Good luck getting that vote back next year.
I'm against a playoff in college football and have mixed feelings about the BCS, but would love to see the coaches' poll eliminated from the BCS. Brown's pending vote is part of the reason why. Add his opinion to the frenetic mix of discussionthatabounds about college football's method of determining its mythical champion.
Sparring, because his father was a pugilist, get it? Good. In a bit of a red on red turned cardinal and gold on powder keg blue and gold moment, USC linebacker coach Ken Norton Jr. aired grievances this week with dear old alma mater UCLA. Reports the Los Angeles Times:
"If DeWayne leaves, I would consider several candidates for the defensive coordinator job. Kenny probably would have been among those considered, with no guarantees. However, his quotes in the paper say he is staying at USC, so we wish him well."
Translation: good luck ever getting hired by UCLA. Ahhh, catty man fights. Usually this stuff is so NFL.
Sources told ESPN.com that Smith's suspension was related to improper dealings with an agent. Saban's statement on the matter said only that it was due to violation of team rules and policies.
So I guess that answers the question of whether or not Smith would return to 'Bama for his senior season. In all reality, though, there was about a 99.999999% chance that Smith was about to play his last game for the Tide -- most mock drafts have him being selected in the top five, some even as high as No. 1 or No. 2 overall.
In the offseason the NCAA decided to change its clock rules for the third consecutive year, implementing a 40-second clock a la the NFL and allowing the clock to run on an out-of-bounds play after the ball is ready to snap. There was due outrage. The rules committee claimed games would be no shorter; I thought this was plausible.
2005 and 2007 were "normal" years with the clock rules from time immemorial. There were 142.1 plays per game on average in those two years.
2006 was the Hated Rule 3-2-5e Year. Games were 10% shorter than they usually were that year, and Bret Bielema kicked off 1000 times in a row. Or something.
In 2008 games were 5% shorter than in normal years.
So, yeah, the NCAA rules committee was full of it when they tried to sell their clock changes as benign. They were not. But the reason is not what everyone claims it is: the 40 second clock had little impact on the length of games. The real culprit was the change in the out of bounds rule, which is likely responsible for the vast bulk of the decline. That thing should get repealed lickety-split.
Charles Barkley made a pretty big stink recently when he said, publicly, that he believed Gene Chizik's hiring at Auburn was racially motivated. It wasn't shocking to hear that someone disliked Chizik's hiring -- most people at Auburn did as well -- but what really stirred the pot was the race issue. Yesterday, Barkley appeared on PTI, and while he was sorry towards Chizik and his family, he's standing by the issue that the hiring was racially motivated.
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I believe the hiring was totally racial -- it's not like the school was really doing the smart thing by chasing Tommy Tuberville out so quickly anyway. However, the athletic department made a poor choice (something, as Ciskie noted, isn't entirely unusual) and veered away from an African-American candidate who might have been better for the job. So, yeah, they're going to hear about it.
Jim Tartt made a bad choice that will probably get him kicked off of the Florida football team (ironically, this was discovered -- I believe -- by Spencer Hall, a Florida Gator fan, presumably because he's friends with all the Gators, and then used for blogging purposes) when he recently joined a group on Facebook entitled "Africa Gives Nothing to the World but AIDS."
That is, in the words of Gob Bluth, "a huge mistake." And, as Spencer pointed out, hopefully (although unlikely) Tartt just did what I usually do whenever I have 4,000 friend requests (daily) and 10,000 other things that people want me to join: plow through the list by just slamming "Accept" on each one.
But that seems a touch unlikely; obviously there's a far greater chance that Tartt either a) meant this as a "humorous" way to display his raw emotional dislike of a particular continent or b) just doesn't get exactly what joining this group means in terms of a public statement.
Texas Longhorn fans are understandably bitter about their inability to play for a Big 12 title and a BCS Championship. After all, they did beat both Missouri and Oklahoma in head-to-head fashion, which, one would think, might matter a lot. Of course, one would also think the BCS was actually responsible for its mistakes, but, well, yeah.
And in a bitter action designed to poke fun at the number-crunching overlords of college football, the UT campus police slid a little prank in yesterday's campus police report.
DKR- TEXAS MEMORIAL STADIUM, 2200 Robert Dedman Robbery:
Several UT staff members, faculty, students, and Texas Ex's discovered a fraction of a percentage point had been taken and was transported across state lines. The percentage point was discovered north of the Red River at the campus of another Big 12 South University.
In case you can't tell, they're not being serious. Even though the BCS is a legitimately serious crime against humanity and all sports enthusiasts.
One would also suspect that after this little prank (which I got via Spencer at TSB) made the rounds on the interwebs, someone in the higher ups of the University would have said "please remove that since we are talking about crimes here," but no, apparently everyone's on board. Of course, you'd have to be looking reeeeeally hard to actually see it in between all the "Public Intoxication" tickets handed out, so perhaps it was just an oversight.
Rey Maualuga moved to number one in the blogosphere's collective heart recently when he did a little shimmy-shake behind Erin Andrews. It was baller and hysterical all at the same time. Well, not so fast, my friends. Turns out Donna Lopiano, a former CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation, didn't think so.
The obvious joke from day one was that super-recruit Robert Marve might as well have pulled a Joe Theisman (sorry, ma- rhymes with "Heisman" or "Thighs Man" now) and switched over the "r" and "v" in his last name- couldn't hurt amongst the Peter Kings of the world. From the looks of things so far, however, he's already performing at a Favre-like level when it comes to off-season drama.
Sparring, because his father was a pugilist, get it? Good. In a bit of a red on red turned cardinal and gold on powder keg blue and gold moment, USC linebacker coach Ken Norton Jr. aired grievances this week with dear old alma mater UCLA. Reports the Los Angeles Times:
FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.
In the offseason the NCAA decided to change its clock rules for the third consecutive year, implementing a 40-second clock a la the NFL and allowing the clock to run on an out-of-bounds play after the ball is ready to snap. There was due outrage. The rules committee claimed games would be no shorter; I thought this was plausible.
Jim Tartt made a bad choice that will probably get him kicked off of the Florida football team (ironically, this was discovered -- I believe -- by Spencer Hall, a Florida Gator fan, presumably because he's friends with all the Gators, and then used for blogging purposes) when he recently joined a group on Facebook entitled "Africa Gives Nothing to the World but AIDS."
Texas Longhorn fans are understandably bitter about their inability to play for a Big 12 title and a BCS Championship. After all, they did beat both Missouri and Oklahoma in head-to-head fashion, which, one would think, might matter a lot. Of course, one would also think the BCS was actually responsible for its mistakes, but, well, yeah.
