NFL Quiz: What QB has been sacked the most in NFL history?
Answer below:
Tidbits:
–My buddy Johnny Mac and I are a little miffed that little was
made of Paul Azinger”s PGA victory last week. After all, Zinger
only had to come all the way back from serious cancer surgery.
–But when it comes to Tiger Woods, the records keep piling up.
Woods has now won 13 straight Tour events in which he has
either held or shared the lead going into the final round.
According to Sports Illustrated, the 3rd round leader comes out
on top less than 4 times out of 10. The only golfer to approach
Tiger”s record was Johnny Miller who won 11 consecutive
tournaments between ”72 and ”75 when he led after3 rounds.
–Arnold Palmer was upset after his performance at the Bob Hope
tournament this past weekend. He finished last and missed the
cut after his 4th round 77 (the Hope is a 5-round event with the
cut after 4). Said Arnie, “If I don”t get any better, I”m not going
to play much golf at all publicly. I”ll play at the club with
members, since I play like them.” Arnie, don”t say that. Stay out
and play. Geezuz, he shot 77 at age 70, playing the same course
that David Duval and Jesper Parnevik played. Nothing to be
embarrassed about. And I”ll let you in on a little secret. Watch
Arnie at the Masters this year…(your editor is allowed his one
fantasy a year.)
–“Dirtball of the Year” may already be sown up by the New
York doctor, Allan Zarkin, who decided to carve his initials into a
woman”s abdomen after he performed her caesarean section.
–The actress Angelina Jolie (who”s the daughter of Jon Voight)
sounds like a real winner. John Richardson was doing an
interview with her for Esquire when she showed up 50 minutes
late. She looked beaten and dogged. “It”s not two minutes in her
presence that I check those long arms for tracks.”
–An oldie but goodie college basketball story: In the early ”70s,
Clemson had a coach by the name of Tates Locke. Back then he
was recruiting 7”1″ Wayne (Tree) Rollins. Locke set up a fake
black fraternity off campus and rounded up local black high
schoolers to pose as frat brothers. He also imported some
dancers and a band. Rollins ended up signing with Clemson but
only after a booster bought him a Monte Carlo as well as paying
him an annual salary that Rollins admitted was in the $14,000
range. Which brings me to the following.
The Sneaker Wars
Dan Wetzel and Don Yaeger have just published a book, “Sole
Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed and the Corruption of
America”s Youth.” I recently saw an excerpt and from the looks
of it, the book should be a good read.
In a nutshell, the battle between the shoe manufacturers, mainly
Nike and adidas, has gotten so out of hand that it threatens to
ruin the very fabric of both high school and college basketball. I
have some first hand experience with this through a friend of mine
from Newark, NJ who played ball this past summer for an AAU
team managed by one shady character. I kept asking my buddy
where the guy got the money to pay for all the road trips they
went on (including a trip to Kansas City where my friend”s team,
which had a current NBA player on it, won the tournament). I
never did get a good answer.
Anyway, it was back in the summer of 1984 when then Nike
executive Sonny Vaccaro began courting Michael Jordan during
the Olympics in Los Angeles. At the time Nike”s sales were only
$800 million. [Today they approach $10 billion.] Vaccaro had
never met Jordan but over the next two months Sonny and other
Nike execs met with Michael and they finally got their man,
beating out adidas. Everything was totally above board. Vaccaro
says today that it would be impossible to court someone that way.
You have to get them much earlier in their development, often
before they are teenagers.
Vaccaro later moved to adidas and in 1997 he locked up Kobe
Bryant as he jumped from high school to the Lakers. Sonny had a
longstanding relationship with Bryant”s family and Kobe had
attended Vaccaro”s summer camp. Nike”s CEO Phil Knight took
the Bryant signing hard. The war was on.
Nike”s basketball operation is now run by George Raveling, the
former Iowa and Southern California coach. [Raveling really
learned his craft at Maryland as a high profile assistant under
Lefty Driesel back in the ”70s.] At one point Vaccaro and
Raveling were best men at each other”s weddings. No longer.
According to Dan Wetzel, both Nike and adidas now employ
criminals, sex offenders and immoral street agents. Recently,
UCLA”s Jaron Rush, Missouri”s Kareem Rush and Oklahoma
State”s Andre Williams were suspended due to possible NCAA
violations stemming from a relationship with a Kansas City AAU
coach Myron Piggie and a local businessman Tony Grant.
Piggie was a convicted crack dealer who once assaulted a federal
officer by running him over with his car during a drug bust and
shooting at a K.C. police officer. Wetzel says that Piggie was
paid as much as $70,000 a year as a “consultant” to Nike, mainly
to send top prep players to the Nike All-American Camp.
Grant provided the funding to jet the players around.
Piggie claims, “I had an open checkbook to recruit players.” And
Piggie benefited himself as one Western school paid for a new set
of gold capped teeth. In the Wetzel book, George Raveling calls
Piggie a “role model.”
In 1998, Piggie convinced one of his players, Korleone Young, to
turn pro out of high school even though no scout in the NBA
thought he was ready. Piggie was looking for a Tracy McGrady-
like $12 million endorsement deal that would make him rather
rich. Young proved to be a bust. Meanwhile, both Rush”s are in
a heap of trouble over their dealings with Piggie.
Duke”s Corey Maggette (who left school after his freshman year
to turn pro) had an extensive relationship with Piggie. Wetzel
feels that there is no question Maggette would have been
suspended had he stayed at Duke.
And then there is Joel Hopkins of the Durham, NC, prep school
Mt. Zion Christian Academy. On the basis of coaching Tracy
McGrady for one year, he earns $150,000 per year from
McGrady”s endorsement contract with adidas. Although his
school claims to be a religious institution, Wetzel says that Mt.
Zion promises recruits grade fixing, apparel and waves the dream
of becoming the next McGrady.
Mt. Zion”s reputation for corrupt recruiting has led the whole
Atlantic Coast Conference to avoid the high school.
Says Wetzel, “This is the state of college basketball, where the
competitive business rivalry between Nike and its rivals and the
intense personal feud between Vaccaro and Raveling has taken
corruption to a new level.”
Now if my Newark friend would only give me an
exclusive.[Thanks to PW for passing this story along.]
Top 3 songs for the week of 1/26/74: #1 “You”re Sixteen (Ringo
Starr) #2 “Show And Tell” (Al Wilson) #3 “The Way We Were”
(Barbra Streisand).
Quiz Answer: Most times sacked, John Elway, 516.
Next Bar Chat, Wednesday.
