Knucklehead of the Week
I rarely get nominations for this prestigious award, but this week was the exception. Congratulations, Richie Incognito. The Dolphins guard has been buried by an avalanche of negative news. Incognito, perhaps acting on coaches’ orders, zeroed in on teammate Jonathan Martin and allegedly peppered him with threats and racial taunts. Oh, don’t forget extortion. Incognito also reportedly harassed a volunteer at a team golf outing and demanded that offensive line “meetings” be held at strip clubs. This will only get worse.
I neglected to advise my portfolio manager to get in on the Twitter craze. Took a big hit, but nothing like what Oregon will experience when the BCS standings come out tonight. The spanking the glitzy Ducks took from Stanford is a victory for old-school football. I think the Cardinal is ordering leather helmets.
My wife threatens the kids with no dinner if they miss free throws. College basketball coaches might want to bring her in as a guest speaker because free-throw shooting might be at a premium this season. The new rules prohibiting pretty much all contact will take awhile to sink in. The UD-Findlay game last week was nearly unwatchable as the teams combined to shoot 96 free throws due to excessive whistle-blowing.
In theory, the new rules should improve the product, and Saturday’s game at UD Arena had better flow. Much like college football and the NFL, college hoops wants scoring, scoring, scoring. Points are good for TV ratings — the No. 1 metric for every cash-hungry sport.
UD's Khari Price could play free safety if he wanted to try football. His interception of a long IPFW pass in the final seconds of Saturday's season opener was amazing, considering he was tackled by a teammate. Price showed poise by not traveling after going to the floor. His clutch play was the trigger to Jordan Sibert's dramatic game-winning 3-pointer.
Also, give the UD coaches credit for not going into foul mode. The decision to trap the Mastodons late instead of sending them to the line (where they were automatic) proved to be key.
I heard a lot of whining after the Packers' Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone Monday night. "Oh, it's impossible to get these backup quarterbacks playing time!" Really? Here's an idea: Play the backups when games get out of hand.
Starting QBs rarely rest. Andy Dalton was the only Bengal to throw a pass in a 49-9 win over the Jets. Ben Roethlisberger has thrown 308 of Pittsburgh’s 309 passes this season. Tom Brady has thrown every pass for the Patriots. Surely the Broncos have a Plan B. Nope. Backup Brock Osweiler has thrown seven passes in two seasons.
Trending up: UD women's basketball, Nan Whaley, Florida Georgia Line. The UD women have sold more than 1,000 season tickets, which I'm guessing is more than bottom-dwelling Atlantic 10 men's programs sell.
Trending down: Carl Pelini, Toronto's mayor, trans fat. Pelini quit his job as Florida Atlantic football coach after admitting to using illegal drugs. He changed his tune last week, likely after his attorney mentioned "buyout."
About the Author