Golf Quiz: Where are the four majors being played this year? Answer below.
NFL Bits
—Tim Brown, a former receiver for the Oakland Raiders, alleged in a radio interview Saturday that Raiders Coach Bill Callahan purposefully “sabotaged” the 2002 Super Bowl, with the Raiders facing off against Tampa Bay, by changing the game plan just a few days before the game. Oakland ended up being trounced 48-21.
Callahan, now working with the Cowboys, said he was “shocked and saddened” by the accusation.
Brown, appearing on SiriusXM NFL Radio, said the original game plan given to the team that Monday before called for a run-heavy offensive attack, Tampa Bay having a superb defense, designed to take advantage of the Raiders’ size on the offensive line.
But Brown said Callahan changed the game plan Friday, two days before the Super Bowl, to a pass-heavy approach. Brown claims that Callahan so hated the organization he worked for that he wanted Coach Jon Gruden, who had left the Raiders for the Buccaneers after the previous season, to win the game instead.
“We all called it sabotage,” Brown said in the interview, adding, “because Callahan and Gruden were good friends.”
Tuesday, Jerry Rice, who was a teammate of Brown’s on that Raiders team, told ESPN, “Why would you wait to the last second to change the game plan?”
Brown then backtracked a bit, saying he was only expressing his opinion.
In the game itself, Oakland ran it just 11 times and passed 44 times. But they trailed 20-3 at half, plus they had the most passing yards in the league that season.
Rich Gannon was the Raiders’ quarterback. He said he believed Callahan wanted to win. Gannon said Tampa Bay’s easy victory was largely because Oakland hadn’t changed much of its play book since Gruden was there. I distinctly remember that commentary during the game itself.
Gannon: “So much of our verbiage and terminology was a carry-over from what Jon Gruden had installed in terms of our run checks, and so we were calling certain plays and guys like Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks were calling out the runs. So it kind of took us out of our no-huddle plan at the line of scrimmage.” [Judy Battista / New York Times]
“So let me get this straight: A coach would be willing to throw the Super Bowl so his buddy, coaching the other team, would win because he hated the organization he was able to get to the Super Bowl.
“I’d sooner believe Manti Te’o’s girlfriend was real….
“I’d sooner believe Callahan was driven to change the game plan because he feared Gruden knew Raiders tendencies like the back of his hand.
“Or would it be too far-fetched to believe the late (Al) Davis, first-ballot Paranoid Hall of Famer, may have ordered his puppet coach to change the game plan?
“I’d almost sooner believe former Baltimore Colts defensive end Bubba Smith, who wrote in a book that the Super Bowl III Jets’ 16-7 upset for the ages was fixed.
“ ‘This might sound crazy,’ Smith said, ‘but I don’t think the game was kosher. In order for the [AFL-NFL] merger to go through, [the Jets] had to win.’
“Here’s what people seem to have forgotten: Marc Trestman, the new Bears coach, called the plays, not Callahan.
“And people tell me Callahan was devastated for a long time after the game….
“Brown, and especially Rice, have had countless great moments in the NFL. This isn’t one of them.”
–Meanwhile, the NFL reinstated New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton after a suspension of nearly a year for his role in bountygate. With the Super Bowl being played in New Orleans, gee, do you think that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who is rather despised in the Big Easy, thought about how he’ll be received in the Super Dome in deciding to reinstate Payton at this time?
It turns out Payton and Goodell met for 4 ½ hours on Monday in Goodell’s office. In a statement, the league said at the meeting Payton acknowledged “his responsibility for the actions of his coaching staff and players.”
–Hey, did you know Jim and John Harbaugh are brothers? The consensus among regulars of Bar Chat is that Jim is the bigger jerk, by far, but that the Ravens are not exactly the most likable team on the planet. See the following…
—Anna Burns Welker, a former Miss Hooters International, on Baltimore’s Ray Lewis after the Ravens took down the Patriots and Anna’s husband, Wes. Anna wrote on her Facebook page:
“Proud of my husband and the Pats. By the way, if anyone is bored, please go to Ray Lewis’ Wikipedia page, 6 kids 4 wives. Acquitted for murder. Paid a family off. Yay! What a hall of fame player! A true role model!”
It was a year ago that Giesele Bundchen, wife of Tom Brady, blamed his teammates for their Super Bowl loss to the Giants.
“My husband cannot f—ing throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.”
—Tom Brady had three Super Bowl titles by the time he was 27. Now he’s 35 and he still has three.
—Joe Flacco is 8-4 in the playoffs in his first five seasons. In the three wins this go ‘round, he has 8 touchdown passes and zero interceptions. As Ronald Reagan would have said, not bad…not bad at all.
AP Men’s Basketball Poll
1. Duke 16-1
2. Michigan 17-1
T-3. Kansas 16-1
T-3. Syracuse 17-1
5. Louisville 16-2…then lost to Villanova 73-64
6. Arizona 16-1
7. Indiana 16-2
8. Florida 14-2
9. Butler 16-2
10. Gonzaga 17-2
College Basketball
–Right after I told you of Wake Forest’s incredibly disappointing loss on Saturday to Virginia Tech at the buzzer when we bricked a put back from one foot away, Wake finally got the signature win Coach Jeff Bzdelik and its fans have been waiting for, an 86-84 win over No. 18 North Carolina State on Tuesday. Freshman Devin Thomas had a coming out party…25 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocked shots.
I mean when the AP story line says, “This was a huge win for the Demon Deacons,” you know it was indeed that, huge. It was Wake’s first win against a Top 25 team in three years, when Dino Gaudio was coach.
So the Deaconwear is coming back out. Granted, it’s a little musty so it will be appropriately cleaned. This win also means, at least in my mind, that the bulk of our freshmen class will return after we have lost a ton of decent recruits to transfer the past few years.
–So I’m glancing through a report by CBSSports.com’s bracketology expert Jerry Palm and he does have something that confirms what I discussed the other day…that the Mountain West is a terrific conference this year. According to Mr. Palm, the Mountain West gets six bids: New Mexico, Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, UNLV, Wyoming. The ACC, by comparison, gets just five; Miami, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State.
Palm forecasts that the Big Ten gets 7, as does the Big East, while the Big 12 gets 6. We’ll check this out later.
—Missouri coach Frank Haith is in deep trouble with the NCAA for “unethical conduct and failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance” while he was coach at Miami. Haith, according to CBSSports.com, funneled payments supposedly going to his assistants for basketball camps to Miami booster Nevin Shapiro instead. Shapiro’s mother told the NCAA she received the payment. Plus there’s a lot more.
Recall, Shapiro is one bad guy currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for orchestrating a nearly $1 billion Ponzi scheme.
Ball Bits
—Albert Pujols had some more thoughts on the death of his great friend, Stan Musial, as told to USA TODAY sports.
“It was such a sad day, but I am so blessed to have spent time with him the last 12 years. He blessed my life, and many, many lives in baseball during his career, and after his career. He touched so many lives. He means as much as Roberto Clemente does to Latin people. Thank God I had the opportunity to know him.
“I wish my kids had the opportunity to be around him, because that’s how I want my kids to live their lives. I want them to be like Stan Musial.
–So I’m reading this piece on former major leaguer Don Buford in the Los Angeles Times, a story about how at age 75 he is the new director of MLB’s Urban Youth Academy in Compton, and there was this bit by Bill Dwyre:
“(Buford) ended with a career .264 average (Dwyre had it backwards, by the way, writing .246) in 1,286 games. That included an incredible statistic that marks his career: In 4,553 at-bats, he hit into only 34 double plays, a major league record.”
That is indeed pretty remarkable. Jim Rice, for example, holds the top two single-season marks for GIDP with 36 and 35.
Buford had an interesting career. Three straight seasons he scored 99 runs. He also stole an even 200 bases, but he did get caught 105 times, not a super percentage. All in all, though, a good little outfielder with some pop and an excellent .362 on-base percentage who would be making $6 million to $7 million per season in today’s game.
–The Maloof family has agreed to sell the Sacramento Kings and move the franchise to Seattle, pending approval by NBA owners. Sacramento mayor and former NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson said the city remains undeterred and will present a counteroffer. I’m guessing Sacramento doesn’t have a chance of retaining the team.
Seattle lost their team in 2008 when the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City. The new one would bring back the SuperSonics name.
–After the last round of last weekend’s PGA Tour’s Humana Challenge, Phil Mickelson was asked to elaborate on comments he made during a Jan. 14 conference call where he addressed the reduced schedule of 45-year-old golfer Steve Stricker, a topic your editor brought up a few weeks ago.
“I’m not going to jump the gun, but there’s going to be some drastic changes for me, because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted federally and by the state,” Mickelson told reporters. “It doesn’t work for me right now, so I’m going to have to make some changes.”
So with Stricker saying he will play a limited schedule this season, Mickelson was asked if he would do something similar.
“I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do yet,” he said. “If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate is at 62 to 63 percent. So I’ve got to make some decisions on what I’m going to do.”
Now some folks were a little miffed at Lefty’s comments, but others said it was “hard to blame” him, as a GolfChannel.com article put it.
Lefty, though, recognized he went somewhere he didn’t need to, especially given all his rather lucrative sponsorships, so on Tuesday he issued a statement.
“Finances and taxes are a personal matter and I should not have made my opinions on them public. I apologize to those I have upset or insulted and assure you I intend to not let it happen again.”
Tiger Woods moved to Florida in 1996 for the reason that he then didn’t have to pay state income tax. Woods said on Tuesday at a pre-tournament press conference for this week’s PGA event at Torrey Pines:
“I moved out of here (Calif.) for that reason. I understand what (Phil) was, I think, trying to say.”
Mickelson admitted last weekend that his withdrawal as a part owner of the San Diego Padres had a lot to do with California’s tax laws. “Yeah, absolutely,” he said when asked.
Tuesday he said: “Right now, I’m like many Americans who are trying to understand the new tax laws….Like everyone else I want to make decisions that are best for my future and my family.”
Don’t worry, Phil. Golf fans are a generally most conservative, and fairly well-to-do, lot. They understand.
—19-year-old American Sloane Stephens (love the name, Sloane…it’s an “Entourage” thing for you old fans of the show out there) upset 31-year-old Serena Williams at the Australian Open, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Serena had won 20 straight matches coming into this quarterfinal. Stephens now faces No. 1 seed Victoria Azarenka on Thursday. And according to the New York Times’ Christopher Clarey, it is the first time Williams was beaten by a younger American in tournament play, which is rather remarkable.
–So I said the other day there was zero reason to mention the name of the woman whose photos were stolen to be part of the Manti Te’o fraud situation, but since Diane O’Meara opted to go on “Today” to tell her story, ahh, so much for trying to be a good guy. [Heh heh]
The smokin’ hot O’Meara said that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo used pictures of her without her knowledge in creating Lennay Kekua. O’Meara did go to high school in California with Tuiasosopo, but she says they are not close. The a-hole called O’Meara when the Deadspin.com story broke to apologize.
“I don’t think there’s anything he could say to me that would fix this,” said O’Meara, who did I mention before is kind of hot?
Meanwhile, Manti is appearing with his parents on Katie Couric’s show, whatever time and channel that one is on. [Pssst…I do like the perky ex-cheerleader…once you get to be my age, boys and girls, you realize Diane O’Meara wouldn’t take your call.]
“Other upcoming Oprah interview exclusives:
“Madonna says she first thought about sex before she was 21.
“Charles Manson admits to having a violent streak in the late 1960s.
“It’s possible Armstrong has told more lies than McDonald’s has sold Big Macs.
“Over the years, he’s repeatedly said he’s been tested hundreds of times and never failed a test. Hmm. Maybe they just kept testing him for being a jerk.”
“Four Dutchmen had a harrowing night after scrambling up a tree to avoid a crocodile when their boat capsized in rough seas in Darwin.
“The four men, aged in their 30s, were stuck for more than 20 hours in mangroves after their boat capsized while they were trying to catch mud crabs in Darwin Harbour….
“ ‘There was one croc, but the sandflies, they really get you,’ one of the men later said.”
An official said, “They were bitten savagely by sandflies and mosquitoes and were very worried about being eaten by larger things.”
That was Sunday. It wasn’t until Monday morning, when the tide went out, that the men were able to get back to their boat and activate the emergency beacon.
Later, the official said, “They are looking forward to cleaning up and having a shower and having a beer.”
–Suffice it to say, there is outrage over Beyonce’s alleged lip-synching of the “Star Spangled Banner” at the inauguration ceremony. As the New York Daily News put it:
“The sultry singer belted out a soulful and pitch-perfect version of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ Monday to the delight of President Obama and a host of other politicians…
“ ‘And THAT’S why she’s the No1 performer in world music…incredible!’ tweeted an emotional CNN host Piers Morgan.
“ ‘Her confidence is so amazing,’ added one Twitter fan, while another praised her for ‘looking and sounding amazing…and for remembering all the words.’”
“Master Sgt. Kristin duBois and the Marine Band played live for every song – except Beyonce’s national anthem. The band and Beyonce bluffed their way through a prerecorded version, she said….
“A spokesman for the Marine Corps later tried to muzzle the controversy with a carefully worded statement that confirmed the band was faking it, but refused to tarnish Beyonce’s halo. ‘Regarding (her) vocal performance, no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or prerecorded,’ Capt. Gregory Wolf said via email.
“All artists at the inaugural ceremony are prerecorded in case weather conditions or other circumstances could interrupt the program, Wolf said.
“Beyonce, like all the other performers, taped her rendition Sunday night.”
Wolf added later “there was no opportunity (for her) to rehearse with the Marine Band before the inauguration, so it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill-advised for such a high-profile event.”
Meanwhile, James Taylor and Kelly Clarkson were very much live. Clarkson’s version of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” gave new meaning to that tune. She was outstanding.
The thing is, not only should Beyonce have sung live (I thought she was, I have to admit), because the weather was fine, but why risk a controversy when she’s doing the Super Bowl halftime show?! She’s liable to hear some boos when she’s introduced in New Orleans, home of live music. I’m guessing CBS, in all seriousness, will have a prepared crowd soundtrack to take care of this possibility.
By the way, a source close to the Obama family told the New York Post, “Oh, my God! You’re best friends with Michelle and you faked it! I am very upset. I would like my three minutes back.”
A source close to the organizers said, “This is a disaster. No one is sure if it was the call of the production people or here.
“In the history of inaugural events, this has never happened, so it’s not a small thing. I’m positive they thought she was going to sing live.”
Senator Charles Schumer, who was the master of ceremonies, refused to answer questions.
–By the way, Alicia Keys is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.
–Believe it or not, New York radio listeners have been without a country station to tune in to for 17 years…man, time flies…depressingly. I remember when the last station went off the air.
But now WRXP, 94.7 FM, is finally filling the gap…Nash FM…which becomes WNSH.
Top 3 songs for the week 1/23/65: #1 “Downtown” (Petula Clark) #2 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (The Righteous Brothers) #3 “Love Potion Number Nine” (The Searchers)…and…#4 “I Feel Fine” (The Beatles) #5 “Come See About Me” (The Supremes) #6 “The Name Game” (Shirley Ellis) #7 “Mr. Lonely” (Bobby Vinton) #8 “The Jerk” (The Larks) #9 “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” (Marvin Gaye) #10 “Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow The Sun)” (Del Shannon…seriously, in full as good a week as you’ll ever come up with…)
Golf Quiz Answer: 2013 majors…The Masters…a tradition unlike any other, on CBS…Augusta; U.S. Open…Merion (Ardmore, Pa.; Open Championship…Muirfield (Gullane, Scotland); PGA…Oak Hill (Rochester, NY). What makes this year kind of special is that Lee Trevino won on all three.
