NHL Quiz: The Detroit Red Wings were the last NHL team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in 1997-98. Name the teams to win since then…two of them having done it twice. Answer below.
NFL Playoffs
It’s San Francisco vs. Baltimore in the Super Bowl, Coach Jim Harbaugh vs. Coach John Harbaugh. The 49ers are 5-0 in the Big One and the Ravens are 1-0.
San Francisco went down 17-0 to Atlanta and Matt Ryan, with the Falcons outgaining the Niners 182 to -2 in the first quarter. But San Fran and quarterback Colin Kaepernick chipped away and it was 24-14 at half, 24-21 after three, before they won it 28-24, stopping Atlanta on a fourth down at the ten and thus completing the biggest comeback in NFC championship history.
As opposed to last week’s heroics vs. Green Bay, both running and passing, this time Kaepernick ran the ball just twice but was 16/21, 233, 1-0, 127.7 through the air.
In the Baltimore-New England contest, Joe Flacco threw three second-half touchdowns as the Ravens overcame a 13-7 deficit to score 21 unanswered and win 28-13. Tom Brady was ordinary at best. That was also an incredible stat they flashed up at the end that the Pats were 67-0 with Brady when leading at half at home. No longer.
We now enter the two worst weeks in sports…waiting for the Super Bowl. Good time to catch up on college basketball.
Foot-Ball Bits
–My Jets are truly pathetic. To replace Mike Tannenbaum at general manager, they selected a salary-cap expert, John Idzik from Seattle, who is not a player personnel evaluator, and then for offensive coordinator they selected Marty Mornhinweg, who the last ten years held that job at Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, the team is a projected $20 million over the cap, they’ve guaranteed Mark Sanchez $8.25 million for this coming season, they have zero skill players, they have a ton of guys who need to be released, and replaced, and we’re clearly headed to a 3-13 season as Rex Ryan essentially runs the organization with owner Woody Johnson cutting the checks.
“Marty Mornhinweg, as the Lions’ head coach in 2002, won the overtime coin toss late in the season against the Bears and incredulously elected to take the wind and kick off in the days before the rules were changed that prevented a first possession field goal from ending the game.
“It’s overtime, you take the ball. Chicago, of course, immediately drove for the winning field goal, and Detroit never touched the ball. Mornhinweg was ridiculed and then fired after the season with a two-year record of 5-27.
And if Mornhinweg’s relationship with Michael Vick means Vick is coming to New York, then some of us will commit hari-kari. Vick, however, said he isn’t interested, making him smarter than I thought he was.
–Oregon is replacing Chip Kelly, who opted to go to the Eagles after all, with offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, a popular choice. The school has been waiting for Kelly to go since last year and Helfrich was being groomed for the top spot. Kelly was 46-7 in his four seasons with four consecutive BCS bowl appearances. He’s getting $32.5 million over five years to coach Philadelphia. As Ronald Reagan would have said…not bad, not bad at all.
1. Jarvis Jones, LB, Georgia
2. Damontre Moore, DE, Texas A&M
3. Luke Joeckle, OT, Texas A&M
4. Star Lotulelei, DT, Utah
5. Chance Warmack, OG, Alabama
6. Manti Te’o, LB, Notre Dame…cough cough…
7. Alec Ogletree, LB, Georgia
8. Jonathan Cooper, G, North Carolina
9. Sheldon Richardson, DT, Missouri
10. Eric Fisher, OT, Central Michigan
If you recognized seven of these 10, then you are truly a football fan. I recognize just six.
Stan ‘The Man’ Musial, RIP
In a column on Lance Armstrong and Manti Te’o, Washington Post sportswriter Mike Wise had this:
“The past week was a dumpster fire for modern sports myths, and whatever homespun ideals remained of hard work, integrity, sportsmanship and, hell, Internet dating were also engulfed in gigantic flames.”
But then there was Stan Musial. Hard work, integrity, sportsmanship…and one of the greatest baseball players in history.
Musial, the pride of Donora, Pa., died Saturday at the age of 92. Stanley Frank Musial was the fifth of six children of Lukasz Musial, a Polish immigrant who worked at a steel and wire company, and his wife, Mary, a New York City native of Czech descent.
For a few years we have been losing Musial as he began the long fade (just as what is happening with Yogi Berra these days…so get prepared), but it was still very sad news to learn of his passing.
“Stan the Man was so revered in St. Louis that two statues in his honor stand outside Busch Stadium – one just wouldn’t do him justice. He was one of baseball’s greatest hitters, every bit the equal of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio even without the bright lights of the big city.”
Seven batting titles, a three-time MVP (four runner-ups)…led the Cardinals to three World Series championships in the 1940s.
Willie Mays addressed Musial’s character.
“I never heard anybody say a bad word about him, ever.”
Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson said, “Stan will be remembered in baseball annals as one of the pillars of our game. The mold broke with Stan. There will never be another like him.”
Albert Pujols: “I will cherish my friendship with Stan for as long as I live.”
“Humble, scandal-free, and eager to play every day, Musial struck a chord with fans throughout the Midwest and beyond. For much of his career, St. Louis was the most western outpost in the majors, and the Cardinals’ vast radio network spread word about him in all directions.
“Farmers in the field and families on the porch would tune in, as did a future president – Bill Clinton recalled doing his homework listening to Musial’s exploits.”
Musial was a pitcher in the low minors until he injured his arm, turned himself into an outfielder, and went on to accumulate the following.
.331 batting average
3630 hits (1,815 at home; 1,815 on the road)…fourth all time to Rose, Cobb and Aaron
9th in runs scored (1,949)
6th in RBI (1,951)
3rd in extra-base hits (3rd all time in doubles)
Never struck out more than 46 times in a season…no more than 40 in any of the seven seasons he won a batting title
475 home runs
Hit .330 playing every day at age 41
Married to the same woman for 72 years
And back to his character, Musial was as supportive as any in the game when Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947. Bob Gibson recalled how Musial helped establish a warm atmosphere between blacks and whites on the team.
Willie Mays said, “He was a true gentleman who understood the race thing and did all he could.”
“Stan Musial was everywhere in the Midwest and even into the Deep South where they could hear Cardinals games, every town that sent its fans to St. Louis in all of his baseball summers to watch him hit. In that way, even with the grace he brought to it all, across all of his 22 seasons with the Cardinals, it is too limiting to compare him just to Joe DiMaggio. No, Stan (The Man) Musial was their Babe Ruth in all the parts of this country that were considered Cardinals country….
“Ty Cobb, who didn’t like anybody, once said this about Musial in a Life magazine article:
“ ‘No man has ever been a perfect ballplayer. Stan Musial, however, is the closest to being perfect in the game today…He plays as hard when his club is way out in front in a game as he does when they’re just a run or two behind.’
“It is a half-century now since Musial played his last game for the Cardinals, and two things have not changed with him since then: He is still one of the best baseball players of all time. And still not included often enough in the conversation about the very best players of all time….
“Here is how Musial concluded his speech in Cooperstown on the summer day when he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969:
“ ‘I came up in 1941 and I played against men who played in the 1930s. I stayed until 1963 playing against men who will be playing in the 1970s. So I think I can feel qualified to say that baseball really was a great game, and baseball is really a great game, and baseball will always be a great game. And we can safely say that this country will always produce great, great ballplayers. It’s a pleasure now to be part of this great game, and I hope that I gave baseball as much as it gave me.’
“He did all of that, honored his game from the time he got out of Donora until he died on Saturday night, his passing announced in front of other baseball greats at the New York Baseball Writers dinner, Willie Mays among them. So many of the other great players staked their claims to other parts of the baseball map. Willie May had New York first, and then he had San Francisco.
“There was a time, though, when it seemed as if everything in between in baseball belonged to Stan (The Man) Musial.”
Vin Scully: “How good was Stan Musial? He was good enough to take your breath away.”
Bob Costas: “He had greatness and warmth and affection and appreciation. But there wasn’t a specific thing for people to hang their hat on – other than those who really followed him and saw him play…All he was was incredibly good for an incredibly long time and an unbelievably nice guy.”
Earl Weaver
The baseball Hall of Famer died in his cabin while on a Caribbean cruise, apparently of a heart attack. He was 82.
In his 17 seasons as manager of the Baltimore Orioles, his teams won 1,480 games, four American League championships and the 1970 World Series. But they lost to the ’69 Mets after finishing the season 109-53 and sweeping the Minnesota Twins 3-0 in the ALCS. They won in 1970 after winning 108 games and again sweeping the Twins before dispatching the Cincinnati Reds 4-1 in the Series. Twice more, 1971 and ’79, the Orioles made the World Series, only to lose to Pittsburgh both times.
Five times Weaver’s teams had 100-win seasons. His winning percentage of .583 is first among managers whose careers began in the past half-century. His only losing season was his last. Weaver was also thrown out of 98 games, many of them in classic form.
Off the field, Weaver kept his distance from the players, but he could be harsh and sarcastic and his clashes with Jim Palmer were well publicized.
But he was a master at understanding his players’ strengths and weaknesses, knowing which button to push, which player to bench.
Weaver knew the value of on-base percentage long before other managers and he hated the sacrifice bunt, which he considered “giving away an out.”
And as any baseball fan knows, bring up the name Earl Weaver and one thing pops into your mind above all others…as was the case when I heard of his passing. He loved the three-run homer. As he told Thomas Boswell in 1982: “The three-run homers you trade for in the winter will always beat brains.” …and… “The guy who says ‘I love the challenge of managing,’ is one step from being out of a job.”
And there was this classic. Outfielder Pat Kelly would later become an evangelist and Weaver, despite his profane language, described himself as a practicing Christian.
But while joking with Kelly, he suggested that he spend more time on his hitting.
“I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded,” Weaver replied.
He first stepped down after the 1982 season when he was just 52.
“Playing baseball is fun. If I could play I’d never retire. But managing is work. It’s constant decisions of whose feelings you want to hurt all the time.”
He would make a brief comeback at the behest of Orioles ownership in 1985/86.
Davey Johnson, manager of the Washington Nationals:
“I grew up in the minor leagues with Earl Weaver and we proceeded to spend a significant portion of our lives together. He was as intense a competitor as I have ever met. No one managed a ballclub or a pitching staff better than Earl. He was decades ahead of his time. Not a game goes by that I don’t draw on something Earl did or said. I will miss him every day.”
Dirtball for the Ages
“Lance Armstrong says he ‘deserves’ to compete again and will fight his lifetime ban from sport, saying that he’s received the ‘death penalty’ while other cheats have gotten off lightly.
“Breaking down in the second part of a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, the self-confessed liar, bully and narcissist accepted he should be punished for doping throughout his seven Tour de France victories, but not as harshly as he has been. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency stripped Armstrong of his titles and banned the one-time hero from sanctioned sporting events for life in October.
“In what was billed as a tell-all confessional, Armstrong did not give information about who supported his doping, who he doped with, and who helped cover it up….
“Anti-doping and sports officials have been scathing about the lack of detail he has shared.
“International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound is suspicious about Armstrong’s motives. ‘If he’s going to sell the fact he’s contrite…he’s going to have to do some more rehearsals,’ he said.”
“In an extensive interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong admitted publicly for the first time that he doped throughout his cycling career. He revealed that all seven of his Tour de France victories were fueled by doping, that he never felt bad about cheating, and that he had covered up a positive drug test at the 1999 Tour with a backdated doctor’s prescription for banned cortisone….
“(The) interview will most likely be remembered for what it was missing….
“Winfrey allowed him to share his thoughts and elicited emotions from him, but she consistently failed to ask critical follow-up questions that would have addressed the most vexing aspects of Armstrong’s deception.
“She did not press him on who helped him dope or cover up his drug use for more than a decade. Nor did she ask him why he chose to take banned performance-enhancing substances even after cancer had threatened his life….
“ ‘He spoke to a talk-show host,’ David Howman, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said from Montreal on Friday. ‘I don’t think any of it amounted to assistance to the antidoping community, let alone substantial assistance. You bundle it all up and say, ‘So what?’…
“In the end, the interview most likely accomplished what Armstrong had hoped: it was the vehicle through which he admitted to the public that he had cheated by doping, which he had lied about for more than a decade. But his answers were just the first step to clawing back his once stellar reputation.
“On Friday, Armstrong appeared more contrite than he had during the part of the interview that was shown Thursday, yet he still insisted that he was clean when he made his comeback to cycling in 2009 after a brief retirement, an assertion the United States Anti-Doping Agency said was untrue. He also implied that his lifetime ban from all Olympic sports was unfair because some of his former teammates who testified about their doping and the doping on Armstrong’s teams received only six-month bans.”
“(As the interview unspooled), it became increasingly unclear what exactly Armstrong regretted: the fact that he cheated his way to seven Tour de France titles, lied about and vilified his accusers or that he got caught.
“It also was unclear whether Armstrong was uttering carefully scripted lines, speaking from the heart or a bit of both.
“And it was unclear whether Armstrong realized that this first step must be followed by a far more substantive step – testifying under oath about how he perpetuated his decade-long doping fraud – if he wants any chance of rebuilding his shredded reputation and returning to a legitimate, competitive arena….
“ ‘A sniveling, lying, cheating little wretch’ is how CNN talk-show host Piers Morgan characterized Armstrong on Twitter, adding, ‘I hope he now just disappears.’
“Others were supportive, including former teammate Tyler Hamilton, whom Armstrong vowed to ruin after he provided the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency with first-hand accounts of his doping activity.
“Hamilton hailed the confession as ‘a huge, huge first step’ on NBC’s ‘Today Show.’ [Ed. I saw Hamilton and thought, ‘what a jerk.’ There’s no way he should have been sticking up for Lance.]
“The stark clarity provided by Armstrong’s itemized acknowledgement of the banned drugs and blood-doping practices he relied on was followed by more equivocal responses, as one admission after another was followed by a stated or implied ‘But…’
“As in: ‘All the fault and all the blame here falls on me. But behind that picture and behind that story is momentum.’ Armstrong’s point was that as a cancer survivor who went on to win cycling’s most grueling race, he found himself trapped in a narrative perpetuated by fans and the media.
“At another point, he said: ‘They are my mistakes, and I’m sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I’m sorry for that. The culture was what it was.’ The point here was that doping was endemic during the era in which he competed; he only did what other top riders did.
“And when confronted with video clips and accounts of his most unsavory behavior, Armstrong spoke about his victims in the passive voice, as if he hadn’t been present.
“Reminded that he had not only sued team masseuse Emma O’Reilly but also called her a ‘whore’ after she disclosed he had gotten a cortisone prescription backdated to explain away his improper use of the performance enhancer. Armstrong said, ‘She is one of the people that got run over and got bullied,’ neglecting to point out that he was the one driving the steamroller.
“Asked if he had made amends with Frankie Andreu and his wife, Betsy, whom he attacked and called ‘crazy’ for disclosing that she’d heard Armstrong confess to using banned substances in a hospital room in 1996, Armstrong said: ‘No, because they’ve been hurt too badly.’”
“Matter-of-factly, Armstrong tells Oprah that he was just leveling the playing field, doing what was necessary to compete in a sport where doping apparently was widespread. Indeed, some familiar with the field argue that, if all had cycled clean, Armstrong still would have won.
“This is of no consolation to those who feel betrayed or who have been bullied by Armstrong through the years. Of all his sins, Armstrong’s persistent bullying toward any who questioned his drug use – often suing them, successfully – seems to be the most unforgivable….
“During his interview…Armstrong said the problem was his 2009 comeback. If he hadn’t come back, he probably wouldn’t have been caught.
“ ‘We wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t come back,’ he said.
“It isn’t necessary that Armstrong publicly weep, but this sounds an awful lot like ‘I’m sorry if your feelings were hurt,’ instead of ‘I’m sorry I hurt you.’ Rather than owning up, the perpetrator shifts blame to the person aggrieved. Armstrong isn’t sorry for what he did; he seems sorry he got caught.”
USADA chief executive officer Travis Tygart said: “Tonight, Lance Armstrong finally acknowledged that his cycling career was built on a powerful combination of doping and deceit. His admission that he doped throughout his career is a small step in the right direction. But if he is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities.”
Officials at Livestrong issued a statement shortly after the interview aired: “We at the LIVESTRONG Foundation are disappointed by the news that Lance Armstrong misled people during and after his cycling career, including us.”
“Betsy Andreu, the wife of one of Lance Armstrong’s former teammates, watched his interview with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday, and waited for Armstrong to admit it.
“She was not waiting for his doping confession. She was waiting for Armstrong to announce that she and her husband, Frankie, were not liars when they said Armstrong in 1996 had admitted to doping.
“But the acknowledgement that Betsy Andreu had long anticipated never came.
“ ‘He owed it to me,’ Betsy Andreu, on the verge of tears, said Thursday night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. ‘You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball. After what you’ve done to me and what you’ve done to my family, and you couldn’t own up to it? Now we’re supposed to believe you? You had one chance at the truth, and this was it.’
“The Andreus claim that they overheard two doctors in an Indianapolis hospital room in 1996 ask Armstrong if he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. They said Armstrong, who was battling cancer then, rattled off: testosterone, EPO, growth hormone, cortisone and steroids.
“But for years, Armstrong vehemently criticized them for their claims, saying they made up the story because they were jealous and vindictive, and that Betsy Andreu hated him.
“Yet when Armstrong told Winfrey in an interview that aired Thursday that he had doped throughout most of his cycling career, he failed to say that the Andreus’ hospital room story was true.
“ ‘I’m not going to take that on,’ he said when Winfrey asked about it. ‘I’m laying down on that one.’
“For years, the Andreus were silent about the alleged hospital room confession. But in 2005, they were forced to testify in a civil lawsuit about it, and Armstrong began his attack.
“The Andreus said Armstrong blackballed Frankie Andreu from jobs in the sport, and shortly thereafter Frankie was let go from his job as a team director of a squad based in the United States. Andreu, who was once the captain of Armstrong’s United States Postal Service team and commanded respect in the peloton, then struggled to continue his career in the sport because Armstrong threatened to ostracize anyone who would hire him, the Andreus said.”
Basketball great Bill Walton on Armstrong: “He fraudulently helped himself by lying,cheating, stealing and bullying; where are the consequences? They have to be more serious than going on with Oprah.”
Walton also told the L.A. Times’ T.J. Simers that cheaters in sports should be put in jail.
And then there is Manti Te’o…
“On Dec. 6, Notre Dame officials said, Manti Te’o received an alarming phone call: his dead girlfriend, whose loss had inspired him during what had become a triumphant year for the Fighting Irish, might still be alive. Either that or Te’o…had been the victim of a hoax, and the woman he thought he had come to know online and through long, emotional phone calls had never really existed.
“Te’o, a Notre Dame official said this week, was badly shaken by the call.
“Nonetheless, two days later, on Dec. 8 at the Heisman Trophy ceremony, Te’o was asked about his most unforgettable moment of the season. Te’o, clearly aware of questions surrounding his girlfriend’s death, responded with little hesitation: the memory he would never forget from the 2012 season was the moment he learned his girlfriend was dead….
“Was Te’o a sympathetic victim of a cruel fraud, or a calculating participant in a phony story that had been milked to aid his bid for the Heisman Trophy?”
“Manti Te’o told ESPN on Friday that he was not part of a girlfriend hoax, but he did acknowledge tailoring his stories to lead people to believe that he had met her in person before her supposed death….
“During a dominant season, in which he led Notre Dame to the Bowl Championship Series title game, the often-retold story was that Te’o was inspired by playing through the pain of the early-season deaths of his girlfriend and his grandmother. On Wednesday, the Web site Deadspin broke the news that the girlfriend had never really existed.
“On Friday, Te’o told ESPN in an off-camera interview, ‘I wasn’t faking it.’
“He said he did not make up the story of a girlfriend who had died to bolster his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy. (He finished second to Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel.)
“When people ‘hear the facts, they’ll know,’ he told ESPN. ‘They’ll know that there is no way that I could be part of this.’…
“Te’o told ESPN that he had embellished the story of the relationship at times because it would have been too embarrassing for people to know that he had not met her before her death. That apparently included lying to his father, who shared stories with reporters about their meetings.
“He said the relationship began on Facebook. He said that he tried to video chat with her through Skype and FaceTime, but that it did not work out.
“Notre Dame has said Te’o learned on Dec. 6 that things may not have been what they seemed. He told ESPN that a person said to be behind the hoax reached out to him to apologize two days ago through Twitter….
“Before Friday’s interview, Te’o’s only statement had been on Wednesday evening, when he said he was the target of ‘what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies,’ calling it ‘painful and humiliating.’
“The same night, (Athletic Director Jack) Swarbrick held a news conference, saying that even after an investigation, he still had full faith in Te’o.
“But through Thursday and much of Friday, Te’o remained silent, even as new allegations about his story swirled, including a tale of confession from the supposed mastermind.
“On Friday morning, ESPN reported that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo called a friend from church in early December and admitted to being behind a plan to trick Te’o into believing he was in a relationship with a girl who had died, according to the friend, who was identified only as a woman in her 20s.”
For his part, ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap said, “He had a full command of everything I posed. He seemed very comfortable in the chair.”
“Te’o met (Lennay) Kekua on Facebook in 2010, according to Schaap, and their relationship was casual until she told the star that she had been in a car accident and a coma. From April until September, when the imaginary woman faked her death, the two ‘were inseparable by phone,’ Schaap reported.
“Te’o told Schaap he ‘tailored’ his story to give people, including his father, the impression he had met his girlfriend. That, he said, was his only fabrication.
“Te’o also shot down allegations he used the news that his internet love died to help win his Heisman Trophy candidacy….
“The woman who provided the voice of the too-good-to-be-true gal pal called Te’o three months after her purported death to claim she had to fake her demise because she was hiding from drug dealers, Hawaiian news organizations reported Friday.
“According to Schaap, until two days ago Te’o was still not sure he had been duped. Reality finally set in when the hoaxster, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, called Te’o and apologized.
“The bizarre December call was an apparent attempt to rekindle the relationship but finally convinced Te’o that his cyber romance was merely an embarrassing fraud, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported.
“A source close to the Te’o family told the Hawaiian paper about the latest grotesque twist in the increasingly strange case of the All-American and his bogus belle….
“The revelation of the second scam try came as ESPN reported the suspected mastermind behind the Kekua persona delivered a teary confession of the cruel hoax to a friend in December.
“Tuiasosopo admitted to a friend in December that he created the fictional Kekua to dupe the naive Golden Domer, a source close to the friend told ESPN’s ‘Outside The Lines.’
“ ‘He told me that Manti was not involved at all; he was a victim,’ the female friend told ESPN. ‘The girlfriend was a lie, the accident was a lie, the leukemia was a lie.’
“The woman described Tuiasosopo as crying during their December conversation before conceding that he needed to come clean – though he still hasn’t spoken publicly.”
Te’o and his family supposedly were to reveal the tale on Monday, but then on Wednesday, Deadspin broke it.
Two people told ESPN that Tuiasosoppo similarly scammed their cousin five years ago, posing online as a woman also named Lennay Kekua.
A California woman, whose name there is zero reason for me to reveal in this space, expressed shock at how her identity had been stolen…her Facebook photo used.
Titus Tuiasosopo, Ronaiah’s father, on his Facebook page, urged people to avoid making judgments until all the facts are in.
“It is my hope and prayer that we allow the truth to take its course, wherever that may lead,” wrote the elder Tuiasosopo.
Meanwhile, Te’o is now dating Alexandra Del Pilar, the 21-year-old daughter of an Indiana cancer-center doctor. She is stunning…and real!
“During the course of the (ESPN) interview, Te’o answered many questions that arose as soon as the news broke this week. Among them:
“Who perpetuated stories that Te’o met Kekua in person?
“Te’o admitted that he led his father to believe he had physically met Kekua, although he repeatedly denied to ESPN that any meeting had happened. It was Brian Te’o, Manti’s father, who largely supplied the information for an October article in the South Bend (Ind.) Tribute that chronicled the relationship.
“What records could Te’o provide to support the existence of the relationship? What evidence was provided to Notre Dame to support that this was a hoax?
“Even after Schaap’s interview with Te’o, this remains unclear. Schaap said he viewed direct messages between Te’o and Tuiasosopo in which Tuiasosopo admits to staging the prank. Te’o also showed Schaap text messages on his phone in which he, his parents and Kekua discussed scripture….
“Why not visit Kekua at any point when she was allegedly in the hospital?
“This was perhaps most difficult to understand, and Schaap addressed it with Te’o more than once. According to what Te’o believed of Kekua, she had been in a car accident April 28, in a coma until mid-May and then diagnosed with leukemia.
“According to the linebacker, she did not leave the hospital until the day before her supposed Sept. 12 death. But he never went to meet her in person.
“ ‘It never really crossed my mind,’ he told Schaap. ‘I don’t know. I was in school.’
“Asked a little later about it, Te’o said, ‘I was in school. I was in the middle of finals. I was going home. And I was going to try.’…
“Why wasn’t Te’o more suspicious?
“After meeting Kekua on Facebook, Te’o said he reached out to some friends to ask if they knew her. When they said they did, he accepted that.
“ ‘I assumed that, you know, if she’s real, then that means she’s real,’ he said.
“Te’o detailed several times when the two planned to meet – once in Hawaii, once in San Diego – but each time, there was a reason it fell through.”
Meanwhile, former NFL player Reagan Mauia, who played for the Arizona Cardinals, said he and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu went with Kekua on a community outreach trip to American Samoa in June 2011.
“This was before her and Manti,” Mauia told ESPN. “She and I became good friends. We would talk on and off…I am close to her family. She is real.”
So what of Te’o’s NFL draft status? He was thought to be a top-10 prospect. If anything can seem to be his favor at this point, it’s that the draft is still three months away. And as former Redskins and Texans general manager Charley Casserly told the Washington Post:
“Until you get him in the room and question him, it’s just one more thing to ask about right now. Teams will put everything in writing, gathering everything they can that’s on the Internet, investigate it on their own, and really, it’s the same thing as a lawyer gathering information, the way you walk through it. And you want to know the answers to as many questions as possible before you ask him.’”
Seriously, why the heck would a team even consider him? Talk about a distraction in the locker room, too. The other players would be unmerciful.
Lance vs. Te’o
“In sports, we’ve seen weasels, scoundrels and low-lifes who would lift the pennies off their dead grandma’s eyes. (We’re looking at you, Lance Armstrong.) We’ve seen Tonya Harding send a guy to whack Nancy Kerrigan’s knee. We’ve seen O.J. Simpson in prison, not for that but for going in armed to take memorabilia. And we’ve seen Michael Vick, who killed dogs who didn’t kill properly.
“So where does Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o – he of the dead then nonexistent California girlfriend – fit in this gallery of rogues? Or does he fit at all?….
“The revelations and contradictions were more bizarre than anything that came from Armstrong’s sit-down confession with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night.
“Of course, everything the disgraced cyclist told Oprah was news only to her. ‘It’s just this mythic, perfect story. And it wasn’t true,’ Armstrong said. It was ‘one big lie’ created because he had ‘this ruthless desire to win.’ No surprises there. We knew the lies. We knew that the bully always had one foot on a bike pedal and the other on someone’s throat. We knew about all the doping and drugs and spy-novel machinations necessary to win the Tour de France seven times.
“Still, for a long time, we had bought in. We love warm-and-fuzzy sports narratives. Midway through the college football season, Sports Illustrated ran with Te’o’s story, larded with poignant memories of the girlfriend who had been in a car wreck and while hospitalized was diagnosed with leukemia and died hours after his beloved grandma passed, after which the grieving-but-undaunted Te’o made a dozen tackles against Michigan State.
“This is how our heroes are molded from ordinary clay. Pete Rose came with his sandlot enthusiasm, Charlie Hustle sliding head-first into our hearts….And what fun we had in that summer of the long ball, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, laughing around the basepaths, reduced Babe Ruth to an also-ran….
“That’s what we want out of sports. We want fantasy. It brightens the dark corners of life. To see a healthy Robert Griffin III take flight in the burgundy and gold is to see a work of the athlete’s art that we had never imagined….
“We can deal with the first betrayal by our heroes. It comes when we realize that they’re in the game not for the art, but for the money.
“It’s the second betrayal that hurts. It comes when we realize that these are crazy people who’ve made Faustian deals.
“They know the rules, and they don’t care about the rules. Rose felt entitled to gamble…McGwire had androstenedione in his locker and Jose Canseco sticking a needle in his rear. Poor Sosa came to Congress, in his 20th year in the United States, and swore under oath that he didn’t understand a word of English, especially if that word was spelled s-t-e-r-o-i-d-s….
“Americans are forgiving….Think again of Te’o. If he is a conspirator in the hoax, as soon as he admits it, explains it and apologizes, we’ll move on to the next bizarre story….
“Ray Lewis knows that. The perennial all-pro linebacker has helped the Baltimore Ravens win so many games for so long that we have all but forgotten that he was a murder suspect after a nightclub brawl 13 years ago and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in that case….
“But forgiveness comes slowly if our heroes insult our intelligence. Did Armstrong imagine we would not notice the accumulating testimony of witnesses? Yet videotape of his denials, spliced into a documentary, would run longer than anything Ken Burns ever put together.
“Forgiveness is delayed, too, if they drag their sport into the gutter. Marion Jones was the most magnetic personality in women’s track and field, America’s smiling sweetheart at the Sydney Olympics, earning five medals, three of them gold. Then she lied about her doping and lied again, until she had lied so often that a perjury charge sent her to prison….
“So when Lance Armstrong breaks the mythological spell by playing us for fools, it seems appropriate that we romanticists should do two things:
“Make a donation to Livestrong…and then suggest it save money by not mailing us yellow bracelets.
“As for Manti Te’o, we’ll probably soon learn more about the girlfriend who lived only in his mind, but the available evidence suggests that we romanticists should do one thing and do it now:
“You’ll have to forgive me for missing this day in journalism school: Are we supposed to be so cynical that we think an athlete is lying about a tragedy in his life? If so, then tell me, how do you phrase that question?
“So this dead girlfriend of yours…is she for real?”
College Basketball
What a stretch of games was wrapping up around 6:00 PM ET on Saturday as No. 6 Syracuse beat No.1 Louisville, in Louisville, 70-68.
No. 21 Oregon traveled to Los Angeles and handled No. 24 UCLA 76-67.
Then, No. 18 Michigan State beat No. 11 Ohio State 59-56, while No. 15 San Diego State laid another egg (bye bye Top 25) in scoring just nine points in the first half in Laramie as Wyoming went on to win 58-45. The Aztecs were without point guard Xavier Thames (injury) but that’s no excuse. This after SDSU lost a few days earlier to UNLV at home 82-75. My boys are struggling. The Aztecwear is moving to the “mediocre sports drawer.”
But the best game of a terrific day was No. 8 Gonzaga at No. 13 Butler; just super exciting last five minutes in particular…back and forth…great individual efforts…with Butler emerging victorious, 64-63, on a last second steal and floater by Roosevelt Jones. March Madness is going to be great this year. Truly, any of about 20 teams could steal it.
Meanwhile, I was watching the end of Wake Forest-Virginia Tech on ESPN3, Wake had the ball, down one, final possession, ball in the hands of the senior guard C.J. Harris, he drives the lane, looking to draw contact, he does, no foul is called, but the ball goes off the backboard into Wake’s Tyler Cavanaugh’s hands and the freshman proceeds to brick the put back from one foot. Unf’nreal! If Coach Jeff Bzdelik gets fired because Wake wins only 5 or 6 in the conference vs. 7 or 8, this single game will be the cause.
[However, we did beat the spread…five…and at the end of the day, boys and girls, you know that’s all that matters and I’m sure Wake’s AD will be taking this into consideration come season’s end.]
Stuff
—Lindsey Vonn is back! She won a downhill on Saturday at Cortina for her first victory in more than five weeks. “I’m back to my old self and it’s a good feeling,” she said. She had missed six races. With her 58th career win, she is now within four of the all-time record held by Annemarie Moser-Proell. Rival Tina Maze, though, finished second and has a massive lead in the overall standings. American Leanne Smith was third, just the second podium of her career.
With Alice McKennis having won and Stacey Cook second twice to Vonn in Lake Louise, it’s the first time four different American women have reached the podium in downhill in a single campaign. Very cool.
–In the men’s downhill in Wengen, Switzerland (beneath the Eiger and Jungfrau mountains), won by Christof Innerhofer of Italy, Johan Clarey of France, who finished fifth, set a World Cup speed record of 100.6 miles per hour in the Hanneggschuss straight two minutes into his run.
–What a fiasco at the Abu Dhabi Championship this weekend, specifically Friday, as both Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, new Nike buds, missed the cut. McIlroy had two straight 75s and after the first 18 dumped his Nike putter for his old Scotty Cameron model.
Woods missed it after he was penalized two shots for wrongly taking a free drop when his ball was embedded in sand. Tiger and his partner, Martin Kaymer, agreed on the lie and didn’t know the rule. European Tour chief Andy McFee then later informed him during the round and Tiger missed the cut by one because of the penalty. Tiger handled it appropriately. McFee said he didn’t question the ruling. Kaymer said Woods was fighting to make the cut.
[Meanwhile, Brian Gay won his fourth PGA Tour title at the Humana Classic in La Quinta in a multi-player playoff..]
–I saw a blurb in Golfweek that was pretty cool…especially for us Wake Forest fans. Scott Hoch seems to be finally healthy after one wrist/hand injury after another. He hasn’t played a tournament since 2011. He’s now 57 and ready to play again.
But guess what? He’s cashing in a one-time PGA Tour exemption for top-50 money winners and plans on playing…on the Big Tour! I love it. Not a regular schedule, but he’ll cherry-pick where he thinks he can be competitive and he’s convinced he can be. Go for it, Scott!
–Former pitcher Curt Schilling is selling the blood-stained sock he wore during the 2004 World Series. The sock had been on loan to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and is expected to fetch at least $100,000.
Schilling’s company, 38 Studios, collapsed and filed for bankruptcy, with the state of Rhode Island being responsible for $100 million related to the deal, including a $75 million loan guarantee to lure it from Massachusetts. Schilling had personally guaranteed loans to the company as well. The sock had been listed as bank collateral.
There were actually two socks. It was Game 6 of the ALCS when Schilling pitched against the Yankees with an injured ankle. That sock was said to have been discarded in the trash at Yankee Stadium. The sock being sold is from the second game of the World Series, which Boston won that year for the first time in 86 years.
On Wilt Chamberlain: “If anybody tells you anything bad about Wilt, hold your tongue and just know that person never knew Wilt.”
On Wilt’s claim of being with 20,000 women: “Never underestimate anything Wilt ever said.”
“Three bottles of rare, 19th century whisky found beneath the floor boards of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton’s abandoned expedition base were returned to the polar continent Saturday after a distiller flew them to Scotland to recreate the long-lost recipe….
“The bottles of Mackinlay’s whisky, bottled in 1898 after the blend was aged 15 years, were among three crates of Scotch and two of brandy buried beneath a basic hut Shackleton had used during his dramatic 1907 Nimrod excursion to the Antarctic. The expedition failed to reach the South Pole but set a record at the time for reaching the farthest southern latitude. Shackleton was knighted after his return to Great Britain.
“Shackleton’s stash was discovered frozen in ice by conservationists in 2010. The crates were frozen solid after more than a century beneath the Antarctic surface.
“But the precious bottles were found intact, and researchers could hear the whisky sloshing around inside. Antarctica’s minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor.
“Distiller Whyte & Mackay, which now owns the Mackinlay brand, chartered a private jet to take the bottles from the Antarctic operations headquarters in the New Zealand city of Christchurch to Scotland for analysis in 2011.
“The recipe for the whisky had been lost. But Whyte & Mackay recreated a limited edition of 50,000 bottles from a sample drawn with a syringe through a cork of one of the bottles.”
–How hot is Taylor Swift? She is playing MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands on July 13…Bruuuuce territory. This after she plays the Prudential Center in Newark three nights, March 27-29. If she fills the Meadowlands, that will be pretty awesome.
Top 3 songs for the week 1/18/64: #1 “There! I’ve Said It Again” (Bobby Vinton) #2 “Louie Louie” (The Kingsmen) #3 “Popsicles And Icicles” (The Murmaids)… and…#4 “Forget Him” (Bobby Rydell) #5 “Surfin’ Bird” (The Trashmen) #6 “Dominique” (The Singing Nun) #7 “Hey Little Cobra” (The Rip Chords) #8 “The Nitty Gritty” (Shirley Ellis) #9 “Out Of Limits” (The Marketts) #10 “Drag City” (Jan & Dean…the following week the Beatles crashed the top ten with “I Want To Hold Your Hand” at #3. The next week it was #1, the first of seven straight at the top, followed by “She Loves You” and “Can’t Buy Me Love”….and the rest is history…acts like Bobby Rydell’s were steamrollered)
NHL Quiz Answer: Stanley Cup champs since the Red Wings won in 1998.
1999 – Dallas Stars
2000 – New Jersey Devils
2001 – Colorado Avalanche
2002 – Detroit Red Wings
2003 – New Jersey Devils
2004 – Tampa Bay Lightning
2005 – season canceled
2006 – Carolina Hurricanes
2007 – Anaheim Ducks
2008 – Detroit Red Wings
2009 – Pittsburgh Penguins
2010 – Chicago Blackhawks
2011 – Boston Bruins
2012 – Los Angeles Kings
